 everyone and welcome to our special discussion with Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Chastney. It's part two of a special production looking back at 2019 the achievements and the challenges and in this hour we have the spotlight on health and tourism sector. The health sector, Mr. Prime Minister, is critical and to your own admission and again we go back to your budget address for 2019-2020. You said that dealing with the shortcomings has taken longer than desired however to your credit you have remained resolute in trying to resolve what those issues are. But to the public's mind the issues of healthcare are really boxed in into the commissioning or the non-commissioning of the St. Jude's Hospital and the OKEU, the Owen King EU hospital. But it is as those perhaps who are very entrenched in what's going on a more complex matter. So we'll get to expound on what those complications are but first we'll review some of the highlights of the sector for 2019. Remaining a concern to both the government and citizens health issues were and continue to be tackled by various interventions. The two main hospitals were in sharp focus throughout 2019. To ensure proper healthcare to citizens in the south the government embarked on the construction of a new St. Jude Hospital. The 90 bed facility will cater for both inpatient and outpatient services. In the north the phased transition from the Victoria Hospital to the OKEU continued in 2019 with the physiotherapy, dialysis and outpatient units along with the IT department and sections of the laboratory. Recognizing that the biggest deficiency in the nation's healthcare system is that tens of thousands of St. Lucians are unable to afford healthcare the government has pushed forward with the national health insurance program. This program aims to ensure that all St. Lucians have health insurance with government bearing the cost to cover the vulnerable elderly and unemployed. The World Bank health system strengthening project is well poised to push the primary healthcare agenda forward because this project is committed to the implementation of national health insurance while ensuring that our primary healthcare facilities are equipped to deliver services which will promote preventative care of the population. In 2019 the government also launched their health system strengthening project. The new system is aimed at improving health coverage to St. Lucians. The project is aimed at improving accessibility efficiency and responsiveness of key health services and how do we aim to achieve that? For accessibility the NHI will definitely address that in terms of our benefits package given our population access to a specified benefits package. Efficiency will look at how we make our healthcare providers more accountable, how we treat our patients according to protocols. In an effort to reduce morbidity and mortality in terms of the number of persons in St. Lucia being stricken with certain diseases, the Ministry of Health embarked on an island-wide immunization drive to ensure all children at the age of five were assessed and vaccinated. The aim of this initiative was to reduce the need for hospitalization and medication and the cost that comes along with it. A look back there at some of the highlights in the health sector for 2019. We go straight into the big interest matters St. Jude's Hospital. So much had been said on what was found, how it was going to be dealt with and then dealing with it. Now we have seen progress being made down at the site for St. Jude's Hospital. You are comforted that we are making strides in your own estimation. Absolutely. I mean it was a very difficult process and one in which I think that we had to exercise the greatest amount of discipline in that given the amount of political pressure as well as public pressure would cause you maybe to do something that would not be to the benefit of the country in the long run. That was the tough part and particularly when we met with the workers and the staff at the St. Jude's in the stadium. I mean put yourself in these people's shoes that on the fire moved into their miraculous job were expecting that maximum a year it turned out to be then two years then it turned out to be five years then it turned out to be seven years and now they're on the verge of making it to nine possibly ten years. On more than one occasion they were told prepare yourself to move and to be disappointed. So I would say to you of all the people that we've met their story was the most compelling and I understand and when we were having to meet with them to go through the process that it wasn't as simple as looking at a building and saying well just fix up the building because it's better than the stadium. Yes it would have been but we would have spent a tremendous amount of money where we have already spent money so it's money on top of money and we would not have built a facility that would have been able to facilitate and support the development that's taking place in the south that's the reality and yes would it be better than what it is anything would be better than the stadium but it was the strength I think that hopefully at some point people will look back and say okay my administration did do the right thing in what they did so the problem was first of all we didn't expect to find the problem we had you know we were told the hospital was going to open up in July of 2016 it's when minister Joseph and minister Isaac went they said that's not happening we then went and found that it was a letter that was written to the former prime minister in April of 2016 telling him it wasn't going to open in July and they needed another 60 million dollars and possibly it would open at the end of 2016 so first of all they already knew themselves they needed more money and that there was still going to be time required to be able to finish off the thing I then sent an independent auditor physical auditor and the person came back and said boy prime minister there's a lot of deficiencies in this in this hospital I mean if you just walked into the emergency ward and compared it to okay EU you could see automatically the difference things like the MRI machine and X-ray machine were being put on the ground floor they were told not to do that the ceiling was too low so what did they do they dug it down so you actually go down on a ramp to make it to where those facilities are going to be the ramp to take you upstairs too steep and too narrow I look I can go on forever but the point was is that the amount of money that was going to require to be able to make that facility work became more and more difficult and we went through the process of trying to say okay given the complexity of the situation given the need to get into a better facility than the in the stadium can we put a temporary facility and the amount of money that that was going to cost made no sense for us to be able to do that so eventually once the decision was made that we would build a new facility was to get the money get the designs done which we did we've gotten planning approval and now work has begun and we're trying to get into that facility before the end of this year is what the goal is we have but in some quarters the thought the thinking is that really and truly your administration is just providing a sort of glorified polyclinic and not giving solutions a hospital there's nothing further from the truth you know it's a 90 bed facility in fact I'm going to go on record in here and say to you that I think that the facility that we're building at St. Jude's is even better than what was built at oku and I'm on record saying that and I think that when the facility is done people will be able to physically go and look at the two and make that decision now why is that when you look at the the plan that we have for solution we have said that in order to be able to double or triple the GDP view for it has to come up can't have this all this land and all this potential sitting there undeveloped and so we're already starting to see it so cruise ship facility coming in new hotels coming in industrial parks being expanded new business parks coming in a secondary home market so you need a proper hospital yes for the view fortunes themselves people from the south people from my constituency but also now if you're going to be able to be successful and competitive on a global basis and create an international city you need a hospital that meets that standard most importantly this sort of re-rehabitation the expansion for here in our international because there are particular requirements for being able to have a healthcare facility within the vicinity absolutely absolutely so I'm look I'm very encouraged by what we're doing I'm very proud of what we're achieving I think that once it's completed the people will be very proud but sadly many people are missing the point with healthcare in thinking that the success of healthcare is the commissioning of ok eu and victoria they're important elements of it but by themselves are not the solution to the healthcare problems and solution and quickly the ok eu the update on that uh we talk about consultancy in terms of being able for for management um we know that there has been these are transfer some of those services uh in there so where are we at with that uh with respect to how much closer are we to seeing the ok eu being commissioned so again I want to thank the Europeans for the gift in the first place but sadly uh the government was not ready so you have a facility that's been finished for seven years so we're having now to replace the air condition system because it wasn't it was never turned on the MRI MRI machine that never worked never once did one patient is now having to be replaced electrical systems breakers ventilation systems drainage systems all having to be redone uh so every day I'm being presented with another bill to operationalize ok eu but we're not daunted we've come too far not to be able to complete this process uh and what the problem was is that both for ok eu and sin jude given the size that they are and the cost of operating a hospital okay the cost of running a bed at a hospital is about 500 000 us dollars a year so you do not keep people in hospitals when it's unnecessary so prepping people should be done in in other facilities and post operation and recovery needs to be done in other facilities so they just really come in for the operational procedure at the main hospital and and I don't mean get out but we remove somewhere else to a less or costly facility so that was the assumption and the ability to go from uh victory of 170 beds to ok eu for 120 beds I inherited that sadly there was assumptions the assumptions were that you would fix up the primary healthcare facilities so right now it's no secret to solutions if I fall sick or have an emergency am I going to go to the hospital or am I going to one of my polyclinics first I guarantee you the vast majority if not all solutions are rushing to the hospital the emergency center can't cope with the numbers of people and being people are being admitted into the hospital who don't need to be admitted to hospital so they're occupying now a very expensive bed and this this the system to be able to pay for all these services has been input in place you really believe that any semi-intelligent person can't go to victoria hospital and start pointing out the deficiencies though they are very glaring by the way glaring so who who in their right mind would want to have that so the reason why it's that way is they don't have the money that's the reality so the state doesn't have the money the state doesn't have the money either state where they've been running deficits all we do is we have money to pay salaries because that's the one in which if you don't pay that then all hell breaks loose but if there isn't enough medicine if there is not the sheets if there isn't enough food if a piece of equipment's not replaced right then people don't make as big of an issue about those things but they hold you and your government accountable when it's not available but sadly I mean and look I say this because sadly people have become accustomed to that level of service not to say that they're happy with it but we've become accustomed to it based on expectation of their right to be able to have access to healthcare and for the government to pay for it I'm not justifying it I'm just saying to you that that's what I inherited I inherited we inherited a grossly inadequate system in which mediocrity was what the order of the day was so opening up a hospital doesn't resolve that problem the thousands of people in this country that don't have access to healthcare because they don't have the money are terrified to go to the doctor because if the doctor gives them a prescription they can't get it anyway people who are on high blood pressure pills and only take the pill when they get a headache as if they was taking an aspirin so I'm hearing you saying that for Saint Lucians perhaps you believe that we've not been able to reconcile what the reality is and I think the world over if people were to do some reading do some research and countries around the world healthcare remains one of the most expensive sectors for any government it is but for any nation because most governments don't get deeply involved in the healthcare sector it is but I'm saying you to you is that the vast majority of people in solution or a lot of people in solution believe that the most important part of what we're trying to do in healthcare is the operationalization of okay EU and St. Jude's but I think that's not because the buildings are so dilapidated or they're nonexistent and I hear you and we're fixing them but that's not the biggest problem the biggest problem is the affordability of healthcare and putting a system in which it's going to be able to maintain the standards in order to be give people quality healthcare and so the most important thing that my administration is doing is healthcare insurance that's going to be the greatest gift and speaking about that again I want to remind you that during your budget presentation what you said was that legislative and institutional changes would be required to facilitate the full establishment of the national health insurance scheme so are we making headway where that is concerned making great headway I mean and again I want to thank the World Bank and their technical teams and Paho and the Ministry of Health and NIC who've been working with us to get through this process so basically what we're trying to do is introduce a healthcare insurance that will be managed by through NIC and which that once you have a job that you're going to be expected to make a contribution and your businesses make a contribution and it's going to become compulsory so today it's not and so on average a thousand to twelve hundred dollars a year is what people would have to pay to get healthcare insurance we're seeing if everybody participates that number is going to come down significantly so government will pay the premiums for the unemployed the vulnerable and the elderly right everybody else who's working will make a contribution along with the employers anybody who currently has insurance can keep their insurance or they can come and join our insurance so a small business who've not been providing it will get the benefit of coming into a very affordable insurance program our insurance program will cover basic stuff so it'll cover private doctor visits it'll provide basic operations it will provide prescriptions right but what you can do is you can top up that insurance if you want to now be able to be covered for bigger operations or more intrusive surgery so that's a huge step in the right direction now what's the biggest benefit of this is we now can start tackling healthcare in this country we will know because everybody now will go to a doctor so we don't have to guess what the state of health of our country is we will know absolutely what the state of health how many people have high blood pressure how many people are pre-diabetic how many people are advanced etc and everything else it means that the ministry of health now can introduce preventive programs to address that and because now we can continue getting uh checkups from everybody else we can see that we're making progress so what do we know that some of the most costly diseases we have here are non-cunricle diseases right high blood pressure and diabetes people because they can't afford to go to the doctors are waiting until they're almost a critical point they have to either be amputated or go in the dialysis machine or have reached the point of high blood pressure they're going to have to go off work or they've almost borderline stroke or have had a stroke so it means that the state now is getting them when they are in this critical position it becomes a humanitarian cry to give you an example we've allocated eight hundred thousand dollars a year to be able to help people with their health care um a cost for two years in a row we've broken five and a half million dollars and their list of people wanting to get support still continues to come in okay it's not doable and we're doing it because we all have a conscience we're all sensitive and have a tremendous amount of empathy with the people who are coming in who just don't have the money how many families have lost their homes how many people have had to cash in their pensions simply either to help themselves or to help a family member of which now they've gotten sick so this is destroying our country so this health care insurance is actually the most important thing because now it allows people to go and get treated it also means that we're dealing with things beforehand we can have programs to prevent it now here's an amazing thing as you now improve the health of your nation the cost of health care comes down why because less people are getting sick and therefore the insurance has to cover less so we're now having to deal with cancer dealing with car accidents and then therefore your insurance premiums will be able to come down so when we came in none of this was in place none of the primary facilities were ready no money had been allocated 10 million EC dollars is what was allocated to move into okay EU and as I said that they they weren't even finished with St. Jude's that already spent almost 130 million dollars at St. Jude's and it was even close to be finished now again unlike what people are saying whatever demolitions have to take place there were some little buildings that had to be demolished because they were grossly unsafe and inadequate but in the existing building the one that they built what we're saying let's make that into a university if we can get a medical university in that location we'll be the only island in the country in the region that has a medical university attached to a hospital so for an internships and training purposes that's a huge advantage and we are in discussions with three companies looking at the possibility for them to be able to do that I think that's going to be a huge win-win situation for all of us speaking about the strengthening of our primary health care sector smart facilities great program with funding from the UK government under its different programs so 20 17 health centers were being upgraded as part of that smart project and I list them all in just a bit the IMF again I want to go back and refer there because it gives a good indication as to where we're at that conclusion said that the government gets credit for its commitment to resilience but it underscored that some considered efforts are really needed to mobilize climate financing so we get points for being able to recognize that we have to do more for the health care infrastructure in making it more resilient but again the money aspects being able to mobilize for that so first of all primary health care services and making them green and the resilience part of it so there is so was a beneficiary of that so the goal here was that we put in a water tank we put in a backup generator we put in LED lights we put in cameras so that if there was a hurricane that they become self-sufficient for a period of time versus in the old days they didn't have that if they became isolated they were closed down and there were actually no use to people and medicine that was in there would not be refrigerated so it's not every primary health care service is going to do that but it's being spread all around the country in order to make sure that there's diversity in that and I really want to thank DFID and PAHO for that level of assistance but in addition to that we're fixing up over 33 facilities and adding equipment to them in order that people now feel more comfortable going there first so in order to take that stress off of the main hospitals and to allow them to be able to work two things will happen one is that for instance if you go to the hospital you have an operation and you get a bandage you should be able to go back home and you don't have to go back to the hospital to be able to get the bandage changed you can go now to your um uh the one at Santa yes or a polyclinic to be able to get that done and that takes a tremendous one it's easier for them but that's the level of of skills that we want to have in our nurses in addition to that the educational program will be done through those centers as well so I mean in my case in dare so because things kept breaking in nobody wanted to stay there alone right so it just basically by putting the fencing up putting the cameras around and and strengthening it it helps significantly in that in that regard so I'm very excited about that in terms of resilience you're 100 right it costs money what we've been arguing on a global basis and I'm very proud that Senlusha has been taking the lead and I really want to thank Dr. Ribergert for the amount of traveling that she has done the work that she's been doing behind the scenes in terms of really pushing this initiative is how do we can get monies available to us to be able to build more resilience and Senlusha has made a decision in our roads in our facilities we're currently building we're building that resilience in some of the other countries are in significantly more debt and don't have the capacity so I'm fighting also for them but there are some bigger issues let's take VG beach as an example when we did the modeling and if the water level rises by three feet that VG beach actually will go right across the runway and connect to Gantor's Bay and VG will become an island so how do you resolve that problem so what we think is we have to do is bring a maritime coastal team in look at the possibility of creating a fake reef further out and reclaim some of the beach so what will happen is when the heavy waves come their fake reef helps cut the energy and helps stop now all the sand from coming apart and it pushes now the problem further back out cool the sack cool the sack is going to flood if the water level rides you can already see that the sea level and the river level are parallel to each other so the question is how do you resolve that problem do you drain the area do you create better drains do you create a reservoir so the fresh water comes down and you hold the reservoir and we then pump it out so means you build a wall like a dam down at the bottom those are the things that we have to look at but once we've discovered what we're supposed to do where's the money going to come from and sadly none of these things are going to improve the capacity of the country what they do is help now prevent the country from damaging or if we have a major hurricane that the recovery isn't as bad as it would be if we had didn't have those things in place and that's what the challenge that we have on a global basis so debt to GDP access to OECD monies how is that debt going to be treated and then how quickly can we get the money and also implement the projects I mean the different project that we have is money that was given by prime minister Cameron for the west coast road and we were hoping to get it started in 2020 so it's taken almost eight years to be able to execute that program you hear the complaint with CDB I mean CDB is a great agency and they're only following the rules that they have but it's not the swiftest agency particularly when you're dealing with climate change why every year there's a new hurricane season so time is against us and so this is why we're trying to push the envelope do the advocacy that we're doing in terms of getting the world to change its mind or where the World Bank is helping us and maybe now creating a foundation the we'll present a paper at the heads of government meeting in caracom in February we're hoping then we can get it approved by the multilateral agencies at the spring meeting and then we have this year the Commonwealth meeting which is taking place in Rwanda while we're there because 34 SIDS small island development states are members of the Commonwealth we're hoping that we can all sign on now to this foundation and that now this becomes a vehicle to allow development agencies and countries to be able to provide funds to be able to help the SIDS resolve this climate change problem and as we go to break let me just list what these smart facilities are right here in St. Lucia we have the comfort based citizen senior senior students home the La Clare wellness center the VFO wellness center the transit home derisso belvi and monripo saltibus mogu the lafag wellness center bexon library and rich for wellness center marshy entripotiroshi and the castries wellness center so across the island there you could see a broad spectrum of what's happening to make us more resilient at least in the healthcare sector stay with us when we come back we are discussing tourism the world's climate is changing and that affects all of us storms are becoming increasingly intense periods of intense drought and heavy rain stress farm animals and destroy our cross higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reefs and change the migratory patterns of fish st lucia contributes only 0.0015 percent 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 unexpected 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 lucians and welcome back to our discussion with prime minister the honorable alan chastney we're discussing the year in review 2019 tourism st lucia has had an unprecedented year of success in this highly competitive global industry we experienced a seven percent increase in arrivals over 2018 and our stayover arrivals for 2019 so like in the regional 400 000 so again unprecedented for us so we'll take a look now at some of the highlights in that sector we'll come and back to expound and some of those points throughout 2019 st lucia's tourism industry experienced record highs in all areas from arrivals stayover and crews to airlift product development and investment an unprecedented 1.3 million visitors came to the island shores 400 000 was the overs representing a 7.1 percent increase over 2018 solidifying st lucia as one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the eastern caribbean essential to the sector's growth is elifed american airlines in 2019 expanded services to st lucia introducing a non-stop american airlines flight from chicago on december 21 up until november 2019 american airlines had provided 100 000 seats to destination st lucia representing 43 percent of the seating capacity out of the united states the cruise sector also recorded successes following the expansion of birthing facilities at point seraphine that enables the accommodation of vista quantum and freedom class vessels on november 15 with a capacity of 1800 passengers and over 750 crew the mv mariella explorer too made its inaugural call in podcastries the senior marketing manager the st lucia tourism authority was among officials who welcomed the vessel efforts at improving the island's tourism product and heightening the visitor experience continued in 2019 you would have seen the renovation of the market preparatory stage which has already commenced you would have seen the relocation of the vendors we would have trained about 200 vendors to be part of this new initiative that we're doing to ensure that we can advance greater economic penetration in the sector main time the oasis regional tourism competitiveness project is undertaking the pedestrianization of the william peter boulevard of a side improvement program for existing small businesses and the upgrading of sidewalks the st lucia summer festivals seized as the 2019 jazz festival returned to form a collaboration with the lincoln center of new york featured prolific jazz musicians from the home front the region and international on the hills of the st lucia jazz festival st lucia carnival came to life in july attracting increased participation from st lucia's and visitors in fact there was a 13 percent increase in tourist arrivals for the month over july 2018 st lucia's demand in the tourism market was underpinned with a prestigious title of world's leading honeymoon destination for a record 11th time the announcement was made on november 28th at the 26th annual gala ceremony of the world travel awards in oman the winning streak continued with the minister for tourism being named caribbean tourism minister of the year by the caribbean travel awards honorable dominic fede was described as having stood at a destination that is one of the hottest in the caribbean and has become a haven for high-profile investment glittering sands beach park located at toulanger on october 15 became the newest addition to the tourism product owned and operated by st lucia's the facility employs more than 20 persons from the constituency of ancillary can reads the beach park welcomed the first group of over 50 cruise ship guests for a fantastic day in paradise st lucia's talents were showcased at carifest of 14 held in trinidad and tobago the offering was a mix of theater music literary arts performance poetry traditional performances visual arts craft and fashion the performances included a showcase of our laurels festival and a theatrical performance of a little folk tale written by monique ogis and jesse myers and directed by artistic director junior fedrick the world is celebrated along the island as it commemorated 40 years of independence his royal highness prince charles made an official visit to st lucia a special ceremony was held in view fort in his honor above all ladies and gentlemen it gives me particular pride that st lucia today is such a vital member of our commonwealth family which binds together 2.4 billion of us across 53 countries on six continents through our shared experience and common values and the physical embodiment of our talent and creativity now stands at the castries waterfront master sculptor jolly mutovic producer statue that captures the essence of bane's inclusion this is your sculpture st lucia from grozny to barbuno from castries to denry from mico to view fort from library to showzel from souffle to canaries from ancillary back to castries this sculpture is symbolic of how far we've come and where we want to go a look there at some of the highlights of 2019 in this area of tourism and we did include culture in there because the two are certainly intimate now for the government your aim is to increase gdp contributions to a staggering 1.9 billion dollars by 2022 the hope also is to attract investments of 3.5 billion also by 2022 and to create over 4 000 jobs in the tourism sector some people may say a bit ambitious look we've developed a master plan for tourism which includes a branding position as well as a strategic plan and how to diversify the tourism the tourism product we're not only looking at larger hotels and higher end hotels but also very excited about our village tourism program to be able to help solutions to be able to get more involved in the market you know the sandy beach project ansa sab is probably one of my favorite projects ever it's funny because when sir john was alive and before anything had been built on the causeway pigeon island the concept that we're using there is what we want i wanted him to use on pigeon island which basically would be to not allow development on the beach but have like some kind of boardwalk that would separate the hotels from the beach and then create a village and so subdivide it and allow smaller properties to be able to prosper and to create something that's much more culturally relevant to what your destination is people looking for more authentic vacations clearly there are people who like to go to all-incluses and bigger all-incluses and there are people who like the uniqueness of a jade mountain or a sugar beach but there are more and more people who want to go to intimate ends and go to places where they don't get to see what they get back home and so it's how do you create an environment to nurture that culture of yours and sandy beach is exactly that so the a new road will be built along the fence of the airport going into the view fort town where bank of Nova Scotia is the land between the concrete road and going back to the the the city of view fort will be subdivided water sewage electricity being put in a building ordinance we put in special incentives and so it means a solution now can buy 10,000 square feet of land water electricity and sewage is already there you don't have to borrow the money for all of that have special incentives and then now there's a development around them and that is much easier for them to be able to sell with the cruise ship port coming into view fort for home porting pre and post days means that people could now go and stay in sandy beach the goal is to have an access of a thousand rooms in that location we also know that there is development of smaller properties around the island so we're creating a new entity called village tourism incorporated which of course answer and grows the end so far are the lead communities or the villages uh right now so so well village tourism incorporated and village tourism are are part of a of a same circle but they're not exactly the same projects so the projects in ancillary grozolet and souffert about building the physical infrastructure to support it so if i want to have a small guest house now in souffert downtown souffert souffert it's become more feasible i can go to the hummingbird beach to go for the day to the beach the square is there we're now redeveloping the waterfront and it's now in a very attractive town the goal is now to build up on the restaurants and create a water taxi service so people from and shasney or from sugar beach now can take a water taxi and come into town and walk around town and go to these small restaurants in that particular it's to do the same thing in ancillary right i think it would be very difficult for a small guest house to survive in ancillary with the same with the current uh standards you would see there grozolet has done a better job but there's still improvements that have to be done in the grozolet town i.e. the beach facilities the drains clearing up in proper ordinances building back up the older building so that it continues the character of of of the village so physically there will be village tourism but the company we're creating is called village tourism incorporated so what happens is if i want to be able to get into the tourism business let's say i worked at the hotel as a front desk manager or i was a reservations manager or a food and beverage manager i won't open up a restaurant i go in i i am tested by the group in terms of what are my deficiencies are and if you're opening up a small guest house we will give you the accounting system we will give you the booking system we will give you the marketing tools we will provide the training for your line staff and for your middle management on a regular basis we'll give you advice on your interior decorating we will now help you source your towels and your sheets and your soaps and so starting to create a minimum standard so there are europeans and other people who want to come to st lucha for two three weeks and stay at different properties so that those properties have to be relatively same in terms of standard i mean switzerland and austria have been doing this for years france this is one of the oldest types of tourism and it's my favorite type of tourism um ever is village tourism that's why my family when i had a choice of building a hotel i built it in rodney bay not on the beach built it off the beach because that's the confidence i have in that kind of product but unfortunately rodney bay is still not of standard to make village tourism come to life and this is what we want to be able to do it to be successful and sustainable your local population must be involved must be benefiting and then when you bring it to a scale the likelihood of a smaller restaurant and a smaller restaurant buying food from the farmers and buying products from all the other suppliers is much greater than when you're a bigger hotel you have economies of scale and therefore you can bring it in from abroad much easier so the goal is really to make sure that we have a balance in what we're doing from a tourism perspective and building up the rooms um and making the economic impact we think is necessary so part of the part of the plan for product development has to do with castries the beautification of castries included in that is the rehabilitation of the castries market so that plan uh people are looking forward to a timeline because we've seen bumper to bumper a traffic now with the crews the passengers i'm coming in so where are we at with timeline to regarding that so um the redevelopment of castries market the plan has already been completed and i really want to uh congratulate mr poyat i mean he is really a gem in this country in terms of you know he did the derrick walcott home he did the um the square and sue fair many buildings around slusha you know it was his inspiration um and really he's a for me a cultural icon and a person i have a tremendous amount of respect for so the plan has already been done we've started with the place where the vendors go in the back so a new roof um new resurfacing they're now about to do the bathrooms they're putting in now next to where the the marketing board is to put in a container a container park for selective smaller shops then we will start developing the interior of the building including the old building itself so the goal here is to create an atmosphere um that small restaurants can thrive that vendors now start becoming franchisees so what i want to see is i want to see the vendors become franchisees to the the uh arts and craft segment here so people who are producing pots people who are producing baskets um these young people in terms of costumes and natural soap products so the idea is that they would help the vendor design their stall help them design their uniform teach them how to sell their product and also provide them with a price spectrum so now you're not going to see that every vendor is selling the exact same thing uh and that they're going to be able to add value and so a tourist walking around is going to be able to smell see and hear and taste slusha you know uh my vendors who are on um jeremy street right now nobody's got a blender and mixing fresh juices this is the kind of stuff that we need to start seeing and that's what's going to happen at the castries market and that you're going to have a variety of standards so basic products all the way to arts and paintings in the area small restaurants so a tourist going in can get the flavors of slusha me looking for a restaurant to eat in slusha i can go there it's almost like being in a bazaar um so when we went to borough's market in london this is what we're really sampling behind and i have to tell you ecstatic about what we're going to be doing there followed by the demolishing of the print tree um i'd like to think the parliament but the parliament will probably be on hold for temporarily and then the courthouse but the ultimate goal is constitution park will be a park so when i'm standing at the castries market and i look back i'm going to see the cathedral which now is going to connect us to the uh um derrick walkett square now again he's also getting a facelift yes how can you have a person and name a park after derrick and it looks the way it does a cultural icon of this country both in um all forms of the arts where where where where do i see that in that place and normally when you have iconic parks you will see restaurants and activity around it where is it car park around it so the goal is to really change that um the customs building sheds four and five start clearing out the place so that now that those become pedestrian ears and you allow the other city to be able to breathe moving the container port now the cul-de-sac getting we want to be able to put a convention center and and now new or older buildings in the location cdc's we're looking into demolish those buildings but we want to make sure that we have a place to relocate people before we do that that will become now the new government center um so you'll have your high court you have your prime minister's office you have um parliament um you have now certain government buildings that are going to be in that location and so there's this character and i want to be able to walk through castries we're talking about benans i love benans you know nobody's talking about removing the people from benans but we're talking about improving the quality of the facilities getting the dock going back again and you talked about congestion so why not have it from point serif and we have a little ferry that carries the passengers that want to go on tour to the south take them to the benans all the buses are waiting for them there now you don't have all those buses going through what i call the gauntlet move the taxis that are currently by class carinage still have them on the inside but they go and collect their bus down by sheds four and five so when they're leaving they're leaving in front of this last building so again you're not congestion the town so these are all obvious decisions but for some reason everybody's scared to pull the trigger on these things and that's what i'm very excited about we've spent the year redoing the plans because when i made the pronouncements everybody said oh there was no consultation but i think people forgot the fact that there was an intensive consultation in 2000 and 2000 2007 and 2008 but guess what went back to the process met with everybody again and pretty much the same plans but do you think that not pulling the trigger really has to do with the cost that is attached to all what you have described there it sounds all wonderful it's great but how do we pay for it so we um have cut a deal with the cruise industry um to allow them to manage both our castries port and our view for port that's the mo u that we signed with roll caribbean and carnival they're in fact bringing down with them uh accompanied it to review our plans finesse them in whatever way that they think it's going to be possible so we've borrowed 13 million us dollars to do the redevelopment of the castries market which is part of the loan agreement that we have of the time when these government we are um uh spending our own money to demolish the existing buildings and to put in the proper parks and then when the cruise industry comes in they're prepared to also bring cash to the table um so they've agreed to look at their tax structure and we've looked at our tax structure um in terms of of having a tax on that will help now pay for these these different developments that we're going to do it we're meeting with the EU um and also cdb about the infrastructure that's required in castries sewage we know that water is leaking um putting in better utilities how we're going to deal with the surface waters how we're going to expand some of the roads and create now the whole new traffic network so again by accessing development funds to be able to do that so it's still going to cost us money but at least it's on a more concessional basis we believe the return comes in by bringing more business to town 430 castries is dead okay we have a private sector investment that's going to go into point serif and we're going to build merit courtyard we're hoping to begin and break ground break ground very soon we've got a plan for redeveloping the shops they're horrible and and the fact is is it can't have a facility on prime land like that there's only there for the cruise industry i want to see point serif from being used seven days a week all the time by locus and visitors like you know as well as the tourism industry is doing and the plans that you've just um outlined there sound really good and then asked about how are we paying for it you spoke about looking at the tax regime and so forth the hotel accommodation tax or fee if you want to use if that's a more dumbed-down word uh it has been announced that it's being introduced and it's not something off the cuff we've heard about it being in the in the pipeline for a while now but there is that public concern that really and truly you're sort of overburdening the one sector that is keeping st luccia afloat so sadly i could have rewritten the article st luccia is the first country in the caribbean to reduce the vat rate on tourism but then you're saying that you're taking away but you also undercutting so so the point that's i'm saying that's why i said you i could rewrite the story and say to you that st luccia is reducing the vat rate on tourism from 10 percent to seven percent and then applying a fee correct so it's a it's what we call a revenue neutral tax so the purpose of doing what we're doing is in order to allow the monies to be collected directly off of the of the the uh tourist and it's a user fee of st luccia right so they're paying if they're staying at a smaller property three dollars per person per night if they're staying at a larger property six dollars per person per night okay that money is going directly into the tourism authority so that means the tourism authority is no longer dependent on the tourism budget so the 35 or 40 million dollars a year that we're putting into the tourism authority that stops by being now a separate entity like slasper because that's how slasper makes this money off of taxes and revenues that is generating at the port both of the airport and at the seaport it means it has its own budget has its own board because there's too many restrictions to it when it's operating within the government context i mean you remember me when i was director of tourism absolutely when i was minister of tourism constantly complaining that the cash flow of money all of a sudden when you're doing well is when government cuts back on the revenue and that you fight in cabinet every day because people see this as money that could go to health care or education or infrastructure which all need but the fact is is that investing doing marketing is an investment a brand is a value so the better known your brand is the better it helps bananas the better it helps our rums better helps you when you travel and that people know where solution is okay there is that's an asset value to the state that we continue to be able to invest in and that's why we say the solutions you know when we're committing crime or we do things against the tourists what we're doing is we're undermining our own brand because those are the stories that are going to be remembered out there so i don't want people to think that they should do it for tourism do it for yourself do it for brand st lusia let's be known as one of the best places to live the best places to invest that's the story that we want outside there so the changes that we've made are to facilitate making that happen and so therefore there will be no increase in the cost of coming to st lusia but structurally now we've made it much more efficient in order for the monies to go into the tourism authority and for the tourism authority now to be able to spend the money the deal that i did with the cruise with the hoteliers is very simple there were deficiencies in the old st lusia tourist board too much money was being spent on overheads too much money was being spent on events okay which they were understanding what the value to the branding was so we structured that we've taken events out we put some restrictions in and how much money can be spent on an administrative basis and to make sure that there is greater efficiency and more accountability in building our brand but now people are concerned that what's happening to the tourism industry is that now st lusia becomes a more expensive destination i just said that's not the case so if you reduce the vat rate but you put it back on as a form of a head tax your revenue neutral so that's what we're saying is that the cost of coming to st lusia hasn't been has not been affected would not be affected at all pending projects in the tourism industry you did speak about the sandy beach project during the budget you did indicate that we would be having no more less than five or so projects so where we are with that are we still so uh on stream cabot which is a new golf course hotel and real estate project is broken ground so they're doing 90 rooms and 18 who golf course and 300 real estate lots i'm extremely saddened over the sandals project to be honest with you now that's a project that should have started and actually would have been coming to completion right now it would have added almost 400 new suites to st lusia on a piece of land that is only earmarked for tourism development it's the piece of land that lies between sandals grand and the landings sadly the landings decided to challenge the dca in their decision they lost the the first case and they've decided to appeal and the developer basically is holding off because he feels it's too large of an investment to take that risk it was a very difficult position for me because i really want to let all my investors in my country know that this is a good place to invest and we follow the rule of law so that would have that's a significant delay and we would have already been feeling the economic benefit and the momentum from that happening but i'm still hoping that that project is going to happen is that the only stalled project because you did mention that the hilton yep so what so what happened well not hilton we had hilton going in at rex and we were plans were completed everything hilton first which was at rex and we were very advanced and then the rex people decided to do a partnership with sunwing with the same people who were doing the world team not only on the san lucha project but on all of their developments around the island of the country so granada tobacco and antigen particular so it means you have to go back to the drawing board um my understanding is they're pretty far advanced in their concepts they're looking at i think it's a planet hollywood to go where the building was demolished because they had gone as far as to demolish the building uh they're rebranding the old world solution into mystique or mystique i think moustique um and then they're also going to be developing a new branded property where papeo is uh so that is supposed to be starting later this year we then have the hyatt project which is going to go in shock so there's an 800 room property 400 rooms all inclusive 400 rooms e p with also major conference facilities um you have the marriott courtyard that's coming here at point seraphim uh you have the uh sabbushah project which now is going to be a park hyatt so originally that was going to be a fairmont and there was new owners that came in um and have taken over that property so we're hoping that that's going to get started very soon the uh people at dsh are developing um their first hotel which would be right next to the site what's exciting is that hotel is also going to be a university um with luzan university which is phenomenal i mean you're talking about the best um hospitality university in the world and solutions will be given access to that university on a very affordable um basis but once you become a graduate of luzan you can get a job anywhere anywhere in the world we have like 30 seconds left you have canals which is the honeymoon beach this weekend this weekend uh january 15th we're breaking ground uh so very exciting times and there are other things but i want to wait until they're more advanced before we announce them we've now concluded our second hour with prime minister the honorable adam chastney as we look back at some of the events of 2019 and our final hour will be discussing infrastructure as well as citizen safety very key areas for us stay with us as we come back with our third hour i'm lisa joseph see you on the other side