 The government of St. Lucia remains committed to fulfilling its mandate to improve the standard of living for all St. Lucians. One means through which this is being realized is ensuring that all St. Lucians are afforded the opportunity to own a piece of land in their home country. In that regard, a number of housing developments have commenced island-wide, the most recent being the Talvan Housing Development. Officials of the National Housing Cooperation, NHC, have informed that the Talvan Housing Development will aid in remedying unplanned development in the area and increase land ownership. Phase 1 of the project consists of 49 lots, totaling 280,373 sq. ft. and Phase 2 consists of 39 lots, totaling 146,860 sq. ft. of land. Former chairman of the National Housing Cooperation, Timothy Mangal, provided some insight into Phase 3 of the development. Talvan Phase 3 is a total of 899,108 sq. ft. of saleable lands into 132 residential lots. And those lots, of course, range from 14,000 sq. ft. in the largest to 5,000 sq. ft. as the smallest lot. There are also two commercial properties on this site, one for a community center. There's one institutional lot, two open spaces as required by the Development Control Authority. One lot for a water tank, a Wasco water tank. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this development will have its own water reservoir right at the top there and it will be propelled by gravity to the entire development and to this neighborhood. This development was approved by the Development Control Authority in February of 2020. And certainly you could see the standard that has, as you drove there, you could see the quality of the infrastructure so far. Representative for Fresh Start Construction Company Limited, Peter Feliciae, explaining the company's role in the project, called for increased partnership with relevant agencies. We are committed to give our St. Lucian people a piece of St. Lucia. And the model that we have is that we go in and we do all the designs, we get the approvals, we go in, we put in infrastructure, and we get all the approvals and we get paid after the sale of lands. So we are hoping that more significant partners can come in. If you notice, Mr. Bolani said I have not even mentioned the partnership with the banks because they're not present as yet. I'm still hopeful that the banks will come in and be able to partner in ventures like this. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Natural Resources and Cooperatives and Parliamentary Representative for Babuno, Honourable Ezekiel Joseph, explained the options for individuals seeking to purchase land. The agreement is that those of us who want to go into a lease arrangement, you don't have to go to Mr. Bolan at the bank. You can go directly to National House and say, look, every month I'm going to give you $200. I'm occupying 5,000 square feet. The total is $35,000. Every month I'm going to give you $200. That is what we call a lease purchase arrangement, which means you don't go to a bank, but you will rent the land and at the end of the five, six years, National Housing Authority would give you a deed or sale. You can go to Mr. Bolan and get a loan from the Financial Development Bank and the land will be sold to you at $6.00 a square foot. So that's the option you have. Of course, I'm still negotiating to see how we can bring it lower. Minister for Economic Development, Housing, Urban Renewal, Transport and Civil Aviation, Honourable Guy Joseph, promised the residents of Talvern nothing short of the best. This is a proud development for us. It is one that is going to be up to the highest standards of development. Some people think that some places are too rural to give them the best, but this government has a completely different perception. For me, St. Lucia is too small to have anywhere as rural. La Pambitasia, they don't have countryside. Anywhere you live in St. Lucia, you ought to have access to the same facilities that everybody else who live in what they call the more prestigious places in St. Lucia. You entitle to it and the people of Talvern and Babonu, we will give you nothing short of a world-class housing development in Talvern. Managing Director of the St. Lucia Development Bank, Vincent Boland, highlighted the bank's role and the importance of such ventures. We at the Development Bank, we have had an audacious goal in that we want to be able to partner with the government and national housing to be able to develop not only Talvern, but to develop the sites that were identified around the entire island, so that it will give persons one opportunities to have work in the actual development and it will give persons access to that wealth creation. So it will be not just affording opportunities for all, which is one of our slogans, but it will be providing and creating wealth, transferring wealth to St. Lucia. The National Housing Corporation is expected to commence work on Phase 4 of the project in short order. From the Government Information Service, I am Janelle Norville.