 Welcome to Nation B. I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pearls of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. Plans for a home port in Viewfort and upgrade of the castries harbor are moving forward. Government paves the way for non-traditional forms of collateral to secure financing for businesses and calling all entrepreneurs to the ring. In his new year address to the nation, Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shansney updated the nation on plans for the upgrade of the castries harbor and the construction of a cruise ship port in Viewfort. Now plans are moving forward on these two investments which will give St. Lucia a strategic advantage in the region. Lisa Joseph has the latest. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shansney is in Miami for two days of talks with Carnival Cruise Line officials on the plans for the Southern cruise ship port. The Prime Minister is accompanied by Minister for Infrastructure, Port, Energy and Labor Honourable Stevenson King and Acting Journal Manager of Slasper Darren Snack. The port to be constructed in Viewfort is expected to take St. Lucia to the next level in the tourism cruise business. Last year the Government of St. Lucia reached an agreement in principle with Carnival Cruise Line for the construction of the cruise ship port. The island's tourism minister Honourable Dominic Fede says a home port will not only give St. Lucia a strategic advantage in the region but increase revenue for stakeholders as well. But the spin-off from the home porting business is huge. Where you have for example the hotel sector will benefit significantly from the layovers, the airline sector and so on. So it's just another economic opportunity for the island and we're moving towards that thrust of becoming a very formidable home port. The way for home port is being designed to complement a fixed based operation for private jets. This means that passengers will be able to get off their chartered flights and go straight onto the cruise ships within minutes. The fixed based operation is already on stream with operator IAM JetCenter. Invest St. Lucia ISL is facilitating the development of the project. Roderick Sherry is the Chief Executive Officer of ISL. We are currently at approval stage with this project. The total employment is planned to be 12 people. The estimated cost about $2.2 billion. So far this project has full DC approval. We expect to see mobilisation on this project pretty soon. While in Miami, the Prime Minister and Honourable Stevenson King will also meet with the management of MSC Cruises to continue discussions under Castries Port and St. Lucia's hospitality training programme and facilitating employment for young St. Lucia's in the cruise industry. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. The Government of St. Lucia is currently advancing an initiative that will allow businesses to use non-traditional forms of collateral to secure financing. With this new venture, businesses will be able to use their movable assets such as their inventory, equipment, account receivables, vehicles or anything that is of value to the business as security for a loan. Hers Glenn Simon. In an effort to improve the ease of doing business in St. Lucia, Government is undertaking a number of interventions in the business environment as it relates to improving access to finance. The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, a member of the Doing Business Task Force, is coordinating the legislative framework that will facilitate the use of movable properties to secure loan financing. Access to finance is but one of the 11 parameters used to determine the ease of doing business within a country. Fiona Hingson, Director of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Unit, NCPU, explains how this proposed legislation under the rubric Secure Transactions in Moveable Properties will transform the business environment. Fiona Hingson Right now, the common form of collateral use is Hours and Land. With this new venture, businesses will be able to use their movable assets such as their inventory, accounts receivable, equipment, vehicles and anything that is valuable to the business in order to secure loan financing. According to statistics from the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World band group, approximately 70% of a film's wealth is concentrated in its movable assets. Hingston highlighted that Jamaica has already enacted similar legislation, and she is hopeful that the Secure Transactions legislation would be finalized and approved before the end of 2019. As you know, St. Crusher was number one in the region in doing business, and with this new implementation in Jamaica, they have now moved to the number one position, which meant that they are now able to provide more financing to locals who want to be able to expand the business. The Secure Transactions legislation would be accompanied by an online securities registry, which would be established within the registry of the High Court. It will provide financial information on securities' interest on movable properties to financial institutions or persons who provide credit to businesses or individuals. It would also give the financial institution the comfort in knowing that there is a legal framework for them to online using movable properties. Also when you look at, generally look at the business environment, we expect to see an improvement in the business environment. We expect to see those type of initiatives impacting over the countries, over the competitiveness. 35% of local firms consider the lack of access to finance a major to severe barrier to their growth and development. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Unit, Glenn Simon reporting. The Department of Health and Wellness is well underway to ensure preparedness and response to public health hazards, as it is currently reviewing its multi-hazard disaster management plan, more from Funnel Neptune. Health professionals came together recently to play a part in shaping the development of the multi-hazard disaster management plan, aimed at building the health sector resilience to emergencies and disasters. Health disaster coordinator Dr Glenn for Joseph says it is important that there is effective management of emergencies and disasters in the health sector. This plan would allow us to harmonize disaster management across the health sector and provide the scope for us to effectively integrate with and collaborate with other institutions to have a meaningful program that allows us to prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from events, whether natural or man-made. Dr Joseph also emphasized on the need for emergency preparedness and risk management to be strengthened. We did work on a program that provides guidance with roles and responsibility for the next three years. With that, we know exactly the things we need to do within the Department of Health and Wellness and also it gives us that roadmap to effectively collaborate with multiple agencies because I must say that the Department of Health and Wellness, though it has demanded, needs the support of multiple agencies, needs the support of the community and needs the support of individuals to make this plan and program a success. The Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization were instrumental in providing the technical expertise essential for guiding the development of the plan. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fenel Neptune. This is Nation Beat when we come back, calling all entrepreneurs to the ring. The world's climate is changing and that affects all of us. Tensions are becoming increasingly intense, periods of intense drought and heavy rain, stress farm animals and destroy our crops. Higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reefs and change the migratory patterns of fish. St Lucia contributes only 0.0015% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is doing its part along with countries around the world to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate. These efforts are called mitigation but decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more. We need to adapt, that is do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual and expected negative effects of climate change and everyone has a role to play. We need to protect our crops, build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. Learn more about the government of St Lucia's national adaptation plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow St Lucia's. Welcome back. The St Lucia Chamber of Commerce is getting set for its Get in the Ring series which allows entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas in a boxing ring. Get in the ring is one of the biggest startup competitions worldwide, connecting startups to a number of entities including investors, customers, talents and corporates to name a few. With more than 150 countries participating in the event, Get in the Ring has introduced a new unique pitching concept. Chamber of Commerce's advisory committee member, Edward Stevens, speaking at the press launch described the event as a beacon event for the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019. Get in the Ring is a selection event for the Global Startup Competition of the Get in the Ring Foundation. This yearly pitch competition challenges participants to demonstrate their economic aptitude in an actual ring. Through one-on-one battles, participants will compete for a place in the Global Network to meet up, not yet announced, but you'll hear about this one, and the interest of potential investors. 2018 Get in the Ring Wild Card winner, Dinelle Florius of Echo Carib, indicated that the initiative poses massive opportunities for startups. He added that startups are provided with required tools and confidence to move on to bigger things. Get in the Ring is a global competition and it also gave you that exposure that you needed, not only locally and regionally but internationally, to gain the interests of investors and other potential partners that can help you grow your business and get to that next level. I always say that for tech businesses specifically, we are competing in the international market. We're competing globally, we're competing against Amazon, we're competing against Google, we're competing against Apple, and for us being on the internet and having tech companies as well, Get in the Ring has given that great platform that we can build off of to get to that next level. Startups getting in the ring will battle it out one-on-one during five different rounds. Each round focuses on a relevant topic that all investors are interested in, which include team, achievements, business model and market, financials, an investment proposition and freestyle. Each startup will have approximately 25 seconds to convince the jury on each subject and will have five minutes to answer questions. Research, policy, advocacy and communications manager for Invest St. Lucia, Natasha Edward Walcott, indicated that investing Lucia is in full support of the initiative and is looking forward to future collaborations. When the event was first introduced last year, investing Lucia recognized the synergies that could be derived from such an event in light of investing Lucia's own plans and consideration for the introduction of a national incubator and accelerator program. That would strengthen and support the entrepreneurship ecosystem locally. The winner will receive an all-expense paid trip to participate in the global meet-up in May 2019. Deadline for applications is the 28th of February 2019 at 12 a.m. That's nation beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30 p.m. with a repeat at 7.30 a.m. and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am General Norvel.