 The Prime Minister was recently on the ground with Senior Minister responsible for infrastructure, Honourable Stevenson King and officials from the Caribbean Development Bank, the British High Commission and CO Williams Construction Limited to receive an update on the status of the Millennium Highway and West Coast Reconstruction Project. 9. The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs recognizes the need to undertake various interventions to address the prevalence and impact of diabetes and hypertension in St. Lucia. Under the PBF pilot program, individuals who are 18 years and older will be eligible to access the services of screening, risk assessment and laboratory tests at no cost. These health services will be made available as of Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 8 community wellness centers. 8. A total of 15 trainers are expected to head to Taiwan over a three-year span where they will be trained in the areas of chronic disease prevention and control. Direction of the project, we will have 15 people, medical staff from St. Lucia to go to Taiwan for this training and the federal control part will include 12 personnel from St. Lucia which include doctors, nurses, nutritionists and also have community levels. I would like to commend Casa General Hospital in organizing the on-site visit led by Dr. Lin which highlights Taiwan's long-standing commitment to St. Lucia. The government is proud of your dedication and the government is proud of your commitment. We know that you do not have everything that you need and we are trying our very best to give you what you need to do your work. We thank you for your work. We thank the government and people of Taiwan for the partnership. 7. Welcome to the official launch of the UNEX Unity Exercise 2024. The regional security system is currently partnering with the European Union and CARE Forum through the 11 European Development Fund program to strengthen the national and regional security architecture in detection, prevention and management of crime. We have all witnessed the rise of arms trafficking as an independent industry within our member state. Today's exercise is ideal as it awards us with the perfect opportunity to strengthen our readiness, interoperability, interconnectivity and determination in dealing with the scourge of nefarious activity. As a collective, there is no better way to deal with the issues affecting us but in unison. 6. It is a levy. It is it is definitely not a vat. It is a levy that would be collected separately from what we know as the vat. What happens though is that the vat is the final tax so the vat would be levied on your goods and services and then on the levy so so the vat as it always has been is the final tax. The Inland Revenue Department will continue its outreach and education campaign with service providers and has posted the act and general information on the IRD St Lucia website. 5. The government of St Lucia has once again received a supply of fertilizer from the Kingdom of Morocco. This cooperative gesture provided annually aims to address soil fertility challenges and elevate crop production across the nation. So I'm very happy today to receive on behalf of the government of St Lucia 3975 bags of fertilizer that will go to the farmers free of charge. We are now giving to the farmers to support them and to help in terms of increasing our food security, securing our food and nutrition security. 4. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development has partnered with the National Fair Trade Organization, MFTU, to provide vital input subsidies to banana and plantain farmers. The subsidy is very very significant and I know this is a very huge boost to the farmers in agriculture and I'm very very thankful for that and I can assure you that in terms of managing those resources and be able to be able to make the right distribution to reach every farmer who needs it, I can assure the minister that this will happen. 3. Project Coordinator for the Caribbean Digital Transformation Project, Francilia Solomon, this week launched a two-week digital literacy training program for blind and low vision clients of the SLBWA. It is our hope that the provision of digital literacy training starting with St Lucia Blind Welfare Association will go a very long way in enabling as far and wide members of the population to access this training. 2. An event-based public health surveillance system looks at reports, stories, rumors and other information about health events that could be of serious risk to public health. The first two days were spent focusing on the collection of information from the various stakeholders with the aim of using the information gathered to inform a needs assessment analysis and priorities for a proper event-based system in St Lucia. We are able to pick up information on the ground as it pertains to different occurrences happening out of the ordinary and prompt our response. However, we would like a bit more structure so that persons know when to call, what to call for and most especially who to call. 1. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development hosted a signing ceremony marking a significant partnership with the World University Service of Canada, WISC, to drive forward a sub-project dedicated to sustainable agriculture. At the heart of this collaborative effort is the focus on improving agricultural practices, specifically targeting pest and disease control. This collaboration is important as the gains are real gains for farmers and persons who are building the capacity or the capacity built in managing pest and disease and we know that the diseases and the pest particularly affect your productivity, your yield and the quality and standard of growth that you produce and bring to the market.