 We still belong to the Honourable Prime Minister, not if not in the Prime Minister's delivery this morning. He would have said what my duties are for the sort of the days I think we have to accept where we are as a country, what is the situation on the ground, and we need to arrest the current situation. The primary agency is the Royal Central Police Force and they charge the responsibility of maintaining law and order. I want to assure you that I will be working very closely with the men and women of the Royal Central Police Force to deal with the immediate situation, as I speak. We will be working very closely to ensure that we arrest the current situation on the ground. However, moving forward, crime is a multifaceted, crime is a very complex phenomenon and we need to adopt a multifaceted approach. It is one that requires us looking at from the socialisation of children, the schooling, what happens at the schools, and we see what is happening at the schools currently. We need to look at it in a holistic manner and the approach has to be one that encompasses and envelopes all the components and not just what we see being reported on the media. So I will be working with all the agencies and I was happy that this morning Prime Minister mentioned that we will work with everybody, including opposition parties, all agencies who have an interest in fighting crime, we will work with them. The idea is not to alienate or sideline anybody. We understand that different persons may look at things from different perspectives. So moving forward, we will deal with the whole idea is to deal with what is currently existing and then we will look at how we can develop the holistic plan. What is it? The Prime Minister said it is a minister within the Ministry, within the office of the Prime Minister for crime prevention, so it will be, I will be getting the assistance from the Prime Minister. I have been guaranteed that I will be getting the assistance from the Prime Minister, notwithstanding that it will be a standalone ministry. Congratulations on your new position as a minister. But in reference to the, we talk of crime prevention, but we also talk about social problems. Prime Ministers, we talk about the social problem and the new economy. You, as a young man, have been in the force in relation to the communities. How do you see you bringing a line of use to some of these programs? To sort of, I don't know if I quite agree with the program not attracting the youth because if you look at the statistics from the youth economy agency, for instance, and the amount of applicants, notwithstanding the amount that we can actually absorb, you realize that sometimes some of these programs are even oversubscribed in terms of the amount of applicants that we get. So it speaks to us even building on more programs, but there are also programs where I think we can do a little more sense, sense, sense, sensation and educational. We can give, we can do an educational component to it to ensure that young people are, or they move towards these programs. But even before it gets to the stage where we speak about young people and the programs that are being offered, we have to look at the parenting and the current situation that we have with parenting in San Jose. You don't lose our young people when they turn 15 and 16. Some of them will lose them even before that and we need to really work towards trying to ensure that we keep them on the straight and narrow, even before it gets to the stage where we feel that they now gravitate towards a crime, a gun or a life of crime. But we have quite a bit of social programs, as you're rightfully said, and the government continues to work with other groups, like you look at Rice, St. Lucia, you've got to raise your voice. We work with all the groups and all the agents, and that's why I said that the holistic program that we're going to develop is not going to sideline anybody, we're going to take, we're going to look at it with various views, various perspectives and see how we can develop something where everybody can benefit, all young people can benefit, because I mean, the situation is not one that we can allow to continue as it is. But the government continues to work, we continue to do, put in the programs. And I said, some of these programs, you look at the micro and small medium enterprise, the grants, you look at the amount of young people who've been able to benefit and quite a few businesses have started budding because of these programs. And that is the direction that we're not going to be able to solve all the problems overnight and that's just natural. We're not going to be able to solve everything overnight. But we continue to work, we continue to provide the support where we can and we're going to look at how we can deal with the problem that exists now. Well, the youth and sports councils in all the constituents, I think there are 19 of them, I think most of them are made aware of what the government initiatives are and they too have a responsibility to take this information and relate to other persons within their community. They serve almost like a component of local government where they're supposed to relate information. And as I said, they have a role to play. We cannot force them to do what they're supposed to do. But even, you look at the incentives, even in this year's budget, I figured we would have even increased the allocation that youth and sports councils get. It may not be a significant increase, but we did increase and we're increasing the allocation that youth and sports councils get in order to allow them to be able to extend their reach a bit and to do a little more than what they're doing now. Because they too play a very critical role. I think once upon a time youth and sports councils were very active. Now you'll see a lot more dominance in what happened, but they were very active and they play, they too play a very critical role in terms of crime fighting. Okay, so I smile because you said they're disabled and I just like to be correct when we speak about persons with disability. And we appreciate when we use the language, persons with disability, where you give the person the prominence and not their disability. So in future I would appreciate if we use this terminology, persons with disability. But last time I spoke to the press, I informed you that we were working and I gave praise to the Taiwanese government for their assistance in terms of they gave us some financial assistance, a grant that is to help us build a national disability policy. And I know that this morning the president was very happy and other persons within the community, the disability, persons with disability community were very happy to hear that they're going to have a designated desk. And I think that that has been, that is a long time coming and that is very deserving. And I know that I said the community is very happy. We have quite a few issues as it relates to accessibility. And it should not be a situation where someone who has a disability has to call on a particular person to give them access to somewhere. Little issues where you look at designated parking, whether St. Lucian's on their hood, you go to Massey for instance. And I always give, I always thank Massey for ensuring that they have designated parking areas for persons with disability. My issue is 99% of the time you go there, able-bodied individuals are there in the parking and they don't allow persons who really need the parking to park. And I think it requires us as a community, as a society, as a country to truly do some introspection, ask yourself whether or not you can just park on the other side whereas a parking can walk to the supermarket and you're going to deny somebody an opportunity. And I can say this and I get all emotional that there are persons who've called me and who've gone to the supermarket and I had to go back because it was raining and they were not able to park in a parking that was designated for them because if there was another person who had a disability who would have understood but an able-bodied person would go park there. And then again it goes back to the very fabric of our society whether we respect rules and regulations in this country and I think that's why it calls for deep introspection as a people that we need to start with these little things, respect these little things and it's going to transcend into the bigger things. So I'm happy that we're working on a national disability policy to get back to your question. I'm happy that the National Council for Persons with Disability have already reached out and I'm waiting to just familiarize myself with the various groups involved with persons with disability and see how we can get something more comprehensive so that even building codes and there's a lot of legislation that needs to be enacted to ensure that persons with disability feel more included in the happenings of society. I'm happy that you actually brought that up because in a bigger picture I mean we need in creating a society that is inclusive we cannot take away the social component and being or having a disability should not prevent somebody from being able to enjoy the daily things of life. So that is something that we're going to be looking into. We're going to start the discussion. As I said, other persons have expressed their own concerns on my end even as Parliamentary Informical North in the new symmetry that I'm doing. One of the first things I asked those persons who were tasked with designing and preparing the plans for the symmetry was to ensure that the symmetry, every part of the symmetry was 100% accessible for persons with disability from wheelchair users and to ensure that we had the right police, to ensure that persons would not deny an opportunity to enjoy the everyday things of life, the good things that other persons are able to enjoy because he or she may have had a mishap and may have had a disability. So the Miku jetty, as we speak on Saturday night we had a meeting with the fishermen of Miku to discuss the general orientation of the jetty. We had a slight issue with the orientation of the jetty especially the part that comes onto the show and we had a meeting with the fishermen to discuss the orientation and also to give them an insight into just a little further insight into when we're going to start. The materials will be, all materials for the jetty have been received. The cabinet conclusion has been prepared. The material should be collected sometimes during the course of today and the contractor gave me a commencement date or first day of this week, hopefully once all goes well today. But to be on the safe side, I'm going to say like next week we should be able to have a ceremony and see physical works happening on the ground as it relates to the Miku jetty. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I'll take your questions right away. Cabinet meeting. Okay, well I guess I explained that already but I'll do it again. The CELAC meeting was held in St. Vincent and it was a meeting that saw the prime minister of St. Vincent demit office as president of the CELAC movement. They called it the pro-temple president. He was demitting office and that was the first time that the OECS countries and OECS country was under the chairmanship of CELAC. First time. When he took over the chairmanship in Argentina I did not travel, but I felt it was necessary to go to show our first of all our respect. Secondly, our support at the way the Honorable Ralph Gonzalez had managed the presidency of CELAC and thirdly to show our commitment to the issues that CELAC are bringing forward for us in the global world. The issues of climate change, the issues of citizen security and the issues of a new model of financing for development. It is very important that CELAC showed its solidarity in my address. I express these thoughts. So I went to St. Vincent on the morning at eight o'clock for the IRSJet. In there were presidents of most of the country in Central America. The presidents were there. They were represented at the level of president and the president of Honduras who is the new president of CELAC was also there and she accepted the presidency of CELAC. I said, I went to St. Vincent on Friday morning and I returned on Friday after the three o'clock on IRSJet. And I'm back in St. Lucia on Sunday after the Nicaragua meeting, yes. The first, well, I'm very pleased and honored to have Honorable Jerema now but in my in my cabinet. What happened this morning is a first time that a government is recognizing the role of people with disabilities in St. Lucia. It's a first time. What we're saying is that there are many people in the country who suffer from disabilities and they need a voice. They need a voice. They need a voice to see about their well-being. A voice to see about their facilities. A voice to see about their accessibility. A voice to see about the educational opportunities for themselves and for their children. An inclusive voice. A voice to get them included in society generally because many people suffer from disabilities and it's a whole spectrum. A lot of people believe disabilities only mean physical disabilities. That's not true. There are many people suffer from disabilities and researchers necessary to have Honorable Norbert. Who himself is an embodiment of what can happen to you with a physical disability. Norbert got an accident in the middle of a campaign and he had the grit, he had the tenacity and of course he had the support to be able to get an election campaign and win a seat that had never been won by the Senegal Party in its history. So Jeremy Norbert is an embodiment of what someone, if a physical disability, can do. And I'm very happy that he accepted my offer to sit in my cabinet. He's also the Minister of Crime Prevention. And then again it's something new. We're not reinventing the wheel here. There's also a Minister of Crime Prevention in the other islands in the region. And here's what it means and I want to make it clear he's not the Minister of National Security I'm the Minister of National Security. But what the Minister starts with, he starts with bringing together all the organizations, all the ideas. Everybody who knows about crime suppression he has to bring it together. And it's my hope that he can prepare a national plan which will be in for tweeting and changing to deal with sentences growing in the country. And his job is to bring all the parties together. Everyone who has an idea, everyone who has an opinion everyone who knows what to do there is a Senegal body with a Minister who was himself involved in law enforcement. Hopefully, all the suggestions, all the ideas, all the methods, all the tactics that people think should happen. We can concentrate it on one man working with the Minister of National Security to see if we can get some level of crime reduction in the first case, suppression and possibly prevention. And that is why I've appointed Jerry Mann of it. Because of his experience, because he's a young person, he knows fully well the issues that young people face. He's lived it, he's been a top cop for a short time in the police force, so that's his job. He's going to work very closely with me from my office. So he can put together all these plans because everyone has a plan, everyone knows what we must do to reduce crime, everyone. So Jerry Mann, all with Jerry Mann, but we speak to all these people and police men together and hopefully we can get a comprehensive document that will see what are the steps. All be it, it changes all the time. All be it, crime or citizen security has been an issue in San Wichita, but now we want to concentrate and zero it and the Minister of National Security can have time to deal with the security aspects of the country, which is resourcing the police, finding the fiscal space to resource the police and the police can deal with the operational matters. The press release never said so. What happened this morning is the Prime Minister said that Jerry Mann will now, for the time being, hold on to the portfolios of the Honorable Virginia Port. That was only said this morning. That's never said before. The press release never said so. People assumed, and it's up to the press to assume, but it's never said before. Never said so. That was an assumption from the press and from other people who wanted to create mischief. She's improving. She's at home, she's improving, but I can't make any medical pronouncement. I know you can decide if you want to say it. I'll say it again, I'm not a doctor. I just said I'm not a doctor. And I'm going to continue saying that. So all of you who want to criticize, they'll say I'm not a policeman. I'll be saying it all the time. So they can stop that criticism. I'm not a policeman. All right? I say I'm not a doctor. Okay? But as far as I hear, I'm very pleased that only report is improving. Never said so. It said it will adopt. It never said it will be appointed a minister. We are appointed a minister. He will oversee. As a member of parliament, he'll oversee the response. He never said he'll be appointed a minister. Never said so. Anyhow, that's the past. That's the past. That's going to the future. The future is right now, he's been officially holding the duties of home affairs officially now. The rest was history. Yeah, but the real. No, hold on, hold on, hold on. I never, you see, you must make a difference what people say I see and what I see. No, hold on, hold on, hold on. You must make a difference what people say I see and what I actually said. You understand? When you must make a difference and if you go back in the record, you'll find that I did not say that. But if I said it, I, you could record, you find the answer. What happens is that people are saying things, you know, there's a lot of noise around the place and people are taking that noise as facts. You understand? If I said so, I will, I misspoke if I said so. I'm sure I didn't see it, but everything I misspoke. But past, wasn't that presently so? Look over, this doesn't make, this doesn't mean you, anyway, this doesn't mean, let's just forget that. That's in the past. The fact is right now, he is, you see, let me tell you what's important to me. What's important to me is issues that advance the well-being of the states. Right? Fact is, the minister was unwell. Now, Jeremy Norbert is now basically the acting minister of home affairs, labor and general affairs. That's what's important to me now. The ministry of whole crime prevention, is this the subdivision of national security, or is it the task force? Is neither. He is the minister for crime prevention and people with disabilities in the office of the prime minister, just like Richard Ferdrick is the minister with responsibility for crime prevention and people with disabilities. New specific portfolios, yes. No, he's going to work, he's right now, he's going to be working in the office of, in the office of the prime minister and the peers, the prime minister's peers will serve him for now in these two ministries. You've defined it very well. I must applaud you for your definition. He will have a lot more time to deal with the issues as they come, as they arise, you see, because Norbert himself is a law enforcement officer. So listen to me. Everybody knows about how to stop gangs. Everybody knows how to stop gun violence. Everybody knows everybody knows everybody knows. So right now, you'll be able to have somebody who can tell all that and work together with him to curb this situation because if you know the answers, the prime minister sometimes may not have had enough time to deal with all these specific issues. So what he's done, he's divorced it from himself and he's given it, he's given all these issues to a minister who is young, who is a law enforcement officer himself and who has a disability. So his job, as I said to get to before, is to come up with a national plan based on consultation and based on dialogue with all these various groups who have answers, who have solutions, who have methods to suppress or prevent or reduce crime. This is his job and we're not reinventing the wheelhead. This has happened in other Kaya Mena countries. The youth will have somebody they can speak to so then I expect them to work in the NYC who have solutions and some of them should not only be said on radio and television during talk shows so we can come now to a direct link and deal with these issues. I'm glad you spoke about budget and my good friend from DBS I want to show her a few things. You see, we came to Parliament with a World Bank thing and the leader of the opposition made a big young cry. This and that. Do you know he's the one who signed for that loan? DBS. The World Bank won $50 million 2020. He was the one, so it's two components, the World Bank and the CDB. He's the one who signed for the World Bank. And here's what it's called. It's called... Listen, I want you to read it. You understand? Because I want you to read for you because sometimes you hear these things and you take them as gospel. Okay? Don't read for you. You want to hear? Conditions for the loan. Conditions for the loan, right? I guess we need a separate press conference for that. Yeah, explain the budget. What's the statement? Is the statement supposed to come on? The statement is supposed to come on. But I just want to tell you that this loan, that loan was signed, the DPL, the policy development loan. You understand? And it was signed by... Okay? Over the medium term, the government intends to undertake reforms to improve efficiency in tax administration and enhance tax compliance. Listen? These reforms include amendments to the postal income tax regime to reduce the number of deductions, simplify the process, and increase progressivity. On the expenditure side, to prioritize expenditures, projects and programs have been classified discussion were non-discussionary and identified as financing being secured, being not being secured or not secured. You understand? So I just want to tell you that these pre-existing things that we spoke of, all of them were agreed to and signed by the former prime minister, the former minister of finance, the policy-based loan of 40 million dollars that we speak about. All right? So I'm just going to tell you that this loan was nothing new. It was something that was... That was signed by... It's a policy loan, 40 million dollar policy loan. He signed it there. Well, it came after he met the pre-existing conditions. No, we had to... We met it, but these are conditions that he set up. That was a prior condition. You see, the way these things go, they are prior conditions. The video is a document to the World Bank and it's something that COVID is a policy-based loan. Policy-based loan. One for the World Bank one for CDB. Two separate loans. But it's a link to something. No, it's the same loan. It's the same package of financing that we're going to use. Okay. So is it the World Bank providing the... 40 and then the CDB providing the other one. Okay. If I just wanted to say it was nothing new, it was something that was signed before us. Yes. The budget, well, as you know, it comes in two parts. There is the estimates of expenditure that's going to be laid the 20... The last week in March, the Tuesday, and then the debate happens on Wednesday and Thursday. Then after... The reason why it happens on Wednesday and Thursday is the budget, the estimates, which is the document that outlines government's proposed expenditure is circulated before. So the opposition has time to study it. So the opposition is expected to respond the next day, and there are two days of debate, and then we go to the policy segment in April. Well, that will come in the policy debate. The new projects and new plans will be outlined in the policy, which happens in April. What I can tell you is that our country is on a good fiscal trajectory for the coming year. We had a pretty good year, and we're going to have a very good understanding that we didn't have change in circumstances. Inflation is still very high. We also have issues of interest rates. Interest rates are climbing. These are the downside risks, and there is still a great dependence on tourism, but our tourism industry is performing well, but we have to understand these downside risks. Interest rates, inflation, and climate change. These are the free downside risks that that would be fine. Yes, yes. I was not there, you must have heard me. Yes. Okay, let me give you my flying agenda. As you know, there are issues with regional transportation. I left St. Lucia at 10 o'clock in the morning on Caravan Airways. I arrived to Trinidad in Trinidad at 11 30. I left Trinidad at 7 30. I got to Ghana. So the time I got to Ghana, the opening ceremony was over. I got to my hotel room at 20 to 12. The Oral Abaptist was already in Trinidad, so he went to the opening ceremony. Yeah, yeah. The Carracom meeting, as I said, there's a lot of discussions on climate change. That's very important. That's in the upper echelons of the priorities of the government. The Haiti situation was there as Prime Minister Dr. Kenyanton is playing a very important role as far as Haiti is concerned. The Carracom governments are very, very concerned about what's happening in Haiti. As you know, the situation at D2 rated further this week. In fact, yesterday, when 4,000 prisoners broke, the prisoners were made to flee from the prison. And this is a serious security problem. We met face to face, discussion with President, Prime Minister Henry Ariel Henry. And then he left the meeting to go to Kenya. I don't know where he is now, but the situation in Haiti is the cause of great concern. That took a lot of, that took a lot of time in our discussions. Also woke up. Woke up is happening in June. There are some legislative situations that have to put in place. As you know, the last time there was a woke up there was sunset legislation that that legislation has expired. This week, there are two insurance are going to meet at the end of the week to look at that unique legislation. Because as you know, the world has changed and security is of great concern to all Olochaemen countries. So that also came into for discussion. So all in all, then there was the caucus of leaders and the deep caucus of leaders where matters of national security and also there was great concern on citizen security. It's a great concern. It's a great concern for all those for all the region even at CELAC. Citizen security and climate change. These seem to be the biggest, the biggest factors obstructing the growth of these islands. Citizen security and and that is why the national government find important to have a designated minister to deal that issue. It's a great concern a serious concern for the region. Not only in the Caribbean and that doesn't make any excuse for us by something that we have to face head on and that's why we call in on all of us, everybody because there can be no winners. There can be no winners when citizen security is compromised. There can be no winners. Again, you see different different there's one general consensus the illegal importation of guns guns guns guns guns that's the that is what everybody agrees on that there are too many guns that come into the region too many guns. Secondly, gang warfare. So we have to find out why our young people are attracted to gangs and gang warfare. Now, it's there's a there's a feeling that crime has become a public health issue because they're not something we do not consider is when there is a shooting the effect it has on the public health system on the physical public health system when somebody gets shot when somebody gets shot what happens when you go to hospital the trauma that causes so no one and this is why sometimes it amazes me how in St. Lucia people pretend that the prime minister should have an answer if the prime minister said he had an answer and he did not implement an answer the prime minister would be responsible or why would a prime minister want a country where there is wanton wanton criminality no prime minister would want that I don't think the former prime minister once I wanted that I don't think the next prime minister will want that so it's manifesting unfair to pretend that we have all the solutions and the solution is not happening because the prime minister is not effecting them it's unfair and it's not right and it bothers on dishonesty I've made it clear that I have given the police all the operational space that they need to implement the policy of the government which is to reduce crime they have all the space that they need and we give them all the resources we can you're going to hear in this policy statement they're going to be giving more resources to combat crime so we are genuinely concerned we want to see an abatement and we're doing what we can do within the circumstances so I just want to assure the public that this prime minister and this government is focused to causing a reduction in crime in this country particularly gun-related offenses and we have appointed a minister to work with all the parties to work with the political parties if they intend to if they want to to work with him so they have a direct link in the cabinet through the minister of crime prevention all the bodies to come together let us work to solving or helping to solve or helping to suppress helping to reduce and ultimately helping to prevent crime and improve citizen security I really wanted to say that we're very happy about it I mean it's delightful and you know it comes to the things young people are doing young people are doing marvelous things in the country you know but we're not we're not promoting it I mean later with Julian Alfe Julian Alfea's performance he later she I mean she is we're waiting for the day when she'll get Olympic gold this is going to be the day we're waiting for we have to work towards it we have to encourage her to do the work to do what she has to put in the effort and the government will give her all the support that she needs and we've been doing very well for sports this year very well and next month next next week the professional football league is starting so the government have been advancing you're going to see repairs on the playing field so the fact is the government is very very supportive of sports the government hails the achievements of Julian Alfea and the government will continue to work with her and if all are budding sportsmen and women to for them to reach their highest potential So would you say that it's a shining light it's a beacon of hope along the people it is really it is and there are many other sportsmen and sportsmen sportsmen who are out there who we have to encourage you see my job is to encourage you know I saw something on social media so in fact the body brought it to my attention where people trying to politicize the situation we can politicize sports we can politicize crime either these things are not we have to go beyond that we have to rise beyond that there are certain things that we have to get together as a country about there's no we can't look for the short term gain of who supports who or who did we have to we have to forget that these things are national things this country doesn't belong to any politician this country belongs to the people of Senegal particularly the young people of Senegal we have to take some things away from the partisan politics you know take it away and then even at the expense of being called weak or at the expense of being misquoted I say there are certain things that you must take away from the political situation crime sports take it away there is no benefit when there is there are more models on the one government and then there's no benefit absolutely no benefit you may get short term votes but it doesn't it doesn't benefit you because you've seen you remain with the problem and this is why I'm saying we want to put concentrate these things onto one person with the help of the cabinet and report directly to the Prime Minister in Mission National Security thank you yes yeah the who the minister of tourism is holding to continue to hold discussions with them as you know that development will transform if it happens or when it happens will transform that east coast of the country it's a it's a it's what it's what it's called a challenge property it has to be you know it's development started there and it's it's got aborted for some reason but the minister is in constant discussion with him but we're going to be having a series of new investments the minister of tourism investment will tell you about a series of new investments will start in this country shortly including housing and I want to see the how the year of infrastructure also means housing roads public sector buildings you're going to get we're going to be be starting or continuing starting the halls of justice we're going to be doing an addition to the the grocery police station the northern quarters the second phase is going to start shortly right now is the first phase is the is the administrative block the second phase is going to be the accommodation block that's happening so infrastructure will encompass all these all these elements