 On the heels of the unveiling of the Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan for St. Lucia, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Alan Chastney, has been lauded by Caribbean economists and adviser Marla Ducaran for the growth path outlined for the island as the region prepares to emerge from COVID-19. Caribbean economist and adviser Marla Ducaran spoke to the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Honourable Alan Chastney, in a sit-down interview dubbed St. Lucia in a post-COVID world. The Prime Minister discussed the many measures implemented by St. Lucia in an effort to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. He explained that tough decisions had to be made as the country battled both health and economic crises simultaneously. It soon became clear that St. Lucia would not be able to achieve the estimated growth predicted for the island for 2020. Instead, government was now faced with the reality of having to borrow to keep the economy afloat. Honourable Chastney indicated that he was not fond of having to borrow to serve his debt, having recently attained a 59% debt-to-GDP ratio, a figure below the 60% benchmark set by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, ECCB. However, Caribbean economist Marla Ducaran had some insight to share. Whether or not you borrow a cent, your debt-to-GDP ratio is going to go up because the economy is contracting. So your numerator is getting smaller. But in your case and in most countries' cases, the numerator is also getting bigger. Congratulations on achieving this 59% pre-COVID. And I know that the ECCU has this goal of everybody coming at or below 60% debt-to-GDP. I feel like you ought not to worry too much, Prime Minister, right now about debt-to-GDP, because it's really about keeping your economy stable and keeping people healthy and productive in some way. So I feel like now is not the time for us to have these traditional anxieties and around debt-to-GDP. We can let that go for now. The Prime Minister also discussed revenue-generating initiatives undertaken by the government, such as the Citizenship by Investment Programme, CIP. Having been one of the last countries to commence the program, Honourable Chastney explained that the government did not want to compete on price, but instead was looking to differentiate the product. So we put in what we thought was the competitive price, sadly, which is $100,000, and focused on the products, and also said that we were going to have a very stringent due diligence program. And I'm very proud of the fact that that's exactly what we achieved. So how do we differentiate the product is to go after high net worth individuals. So one, offering the headquarters. So a person now can become a citizen in St. Lucia, open up a headquarters, and is both a citizen, and shows that he has a business in St. Lucia. So it doesn't seem like he's just carrying a passport for a passport's sake. The other one is that we're in the process of creating a residency program, so that fact a person can either purchase real estate in St. Lucia through the CIP program, and now pay taxes of about $35,000 a year. So again, now a person can say, I have a residence in St. Lucia. I have a business in St. Lucia. I pay personal income taxes in St. Lucia. So it gives them the substance when they're going around the world. So St. Lucia is not going into the volume game. What we're going into is quality, and trying to go after individuals of high net worth, and that they're going to bring their friends here. The government of St. Lucia remains committed to providing aid to all those negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the continued development of St. Lucia.