 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am Janelle Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. Small properties have been guaranteed a seat at the stakeholders table. St. Lucia students receive guidance in their tertiary education goals and the fourth edition of St. Lucia Business Month is launched. Small properties in the tourism sector have been assured that they are not being left out of the decision-making process. Managers and owners met with the executive of the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association as well as Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister of Responsibility for Tourism, Honourable Dominic Fede, to air their concerns and seek common ground solutions. Additionally, the St. Lucia Tourism Authority discussed marketing opportunities with the properties. The St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, SLHTA, recently held a meeting with 15 small hotel property owners and managers regarding the difficulties they are currently facing in the tourism industry. The objective of the meeting was to find ways in which the SLHTA can improve the operation of the businesses and ensure a safe and secure environment. Caroline Trebetskoi is the president of the SLHTA. So we started out by really letting each hotel present to us how they were doing, what were their challenges and we identified certain areas where the SLHTA can reach out to government and see how perhaps these challenges that were safety and security related could be addressed. A major concern voiced by the small hotels was marketing. The small hotels are at a disadvantage. Normally in a small hotel the hotel owner has to do everything. They're running the show but they also have to answer email, deal with the social media. In big hotels we all have individual staff members to do that. So we were trying to see how we could help the small hotels to have perhaps improved websites, how we can help them to get more visibility through the social media platforms that we have at the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association and how could we also just simply market them better as a group to attract more business. The minister for tourism, Honourable Dominic Fede, highlighted the role of the Village Tourism Initiative and the possible gains for small properties. Village tourism will give you that umbrella body that you need for reservation, technology, marketing, training, tapping concessions, all those kinds of things, standards, all that you need which is why we took a policy position as a government to expand what you know as heritage tourism because heritage tourism deals with attractions only. But you also have a number of small businesses who are in the accommodation sector that can do with some hand-holding. The meeting took place at the Belju Hotel La Pansika Streets. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. The Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations this week staged the annual St Lucia Career and College Fair. Participating in this year's College Fair will represent it is from education institutions from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean region and St Lucia. The annual St Lucia Career and College Fair ended on a high note Thursday, providing an opportunity for students, their parents and the wider public to interact with representatives of various local, regional and international education institutions. Detailed discussions were held on how tertiary level education can be accessed at the various institutions. The Fair also allowed students to consider career paths and the skills and qualifications needed for certain professions. Minister for Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, Honourable Dr. Gail Rigobot, satisfied with the outcome of the event, encouraged the attending students to prepare themselves to take advantage of the opportunities presented. Over the last year, the Department of Education has been successful in its partnership with American College Test and Inc. The agreement provides for a three to five-year framework that will offer over 1,000 tuition students the opportunity to sit the ACT examination. Those with satisfactory scores would gain full or partial scholarships to US colleges. Also successful is the partnership with Monroe College, whereby students who are the first in their families to attain tertiary education are offered full scholarships. Minister Rigobot revealed that other partnership agreements are in the pipeline. In a similar vein, we have engaged Niagara College and George Brown College out of Canada, both of which have expressed very explicit intentions to partner with Sir Arthur Lewis Community College to strengthen our curriculum offering there. The intention, as you can tell, is to ensure that we remain true to our promise and to our commitment to provide a globally competitive education to the citizens of St. Lucia. But more importantly, especially with respect to what we do with our CVQs, NVQs, and TVET, that we create multiple pathways for our citizens. The high cost associated with attaining tertiary level education is not lost on officials. Deputy Permanent Secretary Kendall Kojo told the audience that partnerships are being forged with financial institutions to help students explore the best funding options. Hence, the commitment and pursuit of the Ministry of Education towards delivering educational opportunities to every citizen of this country, regardless of his or her socioeconomic status. This career and College Fair illuminates this first through four of the eight pillars on the pinning of the hashtag Educate St. Lucia Initiative. That includes the ACT Initiative, the first generation initiative, lifelong learning, and career readiness and innovation. The 2018 St. Lucia Career and College Fair was held under the theme, securing our nation's future academically and professionally. From the Government Information Service, Lyssa Joseph reporting. More than 30,000 people flocked to the towns of Souffre and Vuford for the juniquial celebrations, signaling the fact that St. Lucia culture and heritage is alive and well. Creole Heritage Month accumulates with Creole Day, which is perhaps one of the most widely celebrated events on Ireland after the St. Lucia Carnival and the St. Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival. This year, the festival was celebrated in the towns of Souffre and Vuford, who put on a showcase of Creole Heritage and Culture. Minister for Culture and Local Government, Senator the Honourable Fortuna Belarus, stated that the activities in Souffre indeed gave people a glimpse of the past and commanded the organisers for a job well done. We had a chance to visit this morning, which was attended by the residents of Souffre and surrounding areas, and of course we are here now to celebrate. Organisationaly, it looks very good. I just trust that after this goes on because you know it's only 11 o'clock and we already see quite a response from the citizens in terms of patronising the various booths and so. We're quite happy. I think that people are in the spirit of the occasion and I just want to wish everybody bonfire tonight. Creole Food was widely prepared and sold throughout the communities. This was also followed by performances in Creole Dance and plays. Social Transmission Officer for Vuford North, an organiser of the Vuford event, Mr. Kendall Alva, expressed his gratitude to the residents and various groups for their participation. We wish you a happy day for all of us who have never been here. I would like to thank everyone for supporting Creole Dance. I would like to thank all of you for your support, for your dedication, for your support. I would like to say that we know the history of Koteki. Creole Day is a St. Lucian festival that has been celebrated annually since 1984, reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment, Ew Development, Sports, Culture and Local Government. I am Gervry Marius. This is Nation Beat, we're back in a moment. I have my mobile, landline, cable TV and internet service. If I have a problem with any of the services, what should I do? Here's what you should do to resolve the problem. First, get infillota complaint form and lodge your complaint with the service provider. If after 30 days there is still no solution, you may contact your National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, NTRC. This message is brought to you as a public service announcement by Ectel, the NTRC and this station. Welcome back. The fourth edition of St. Lucia Business Month is being held under the theme Sustainable Enterprises, People, Planet and Profit. This year's aims, according to Permanent Secretary in the Department of Commerce Peggy and Sudak is to sensitize the business community on the value and importance of practicing economic, social and environmental sustainability, as well as incorporating the sustainable development goals in the business models and decision making processes. Investing in sustainability measures can foster opportunities for innovative business ideas. Sustainable businesses are also good for the environment. Employees who feel that they can make an impact on social and environmental issues while on the job are twice as satisfied with work according to a study carried out by Rutgers University. Sustainable businesses are able to cut down on energy and waste costs. St. Lucia Business Month will be delivered in partnership with key public and private sector agencies in fostering and promoting the message of sustainable development among micro, small and medium enterprises. This will be achieved through a series of targeted events in the form of panel discussions, workshops, symposiums, consultations and business-to-business networking sessions. Managing director of Marcy Stor's Martin Dorville indicated that a business stands to benefit significantly by being more sustainable. The private sector needs to play its part but we know also the government has to play a really important part and we are hearing of what is being put forward so that we can have a good synergy of efforts so we can get some real success in those areas. But we need to be proactive. We need to have organizational structure. So when we think of strategy, there must be a structure to support it. It needs to be part of your governance model. You may talk it but if you don't have it from the top being monitored, being controlled, questions being asked, why not this and why that? Why haven't we achieved this? Around the subject of environment and sustainability, it's never going to become a real important issue in your boardrooms or in your organizations. The core objectives of this year's St. Lucia Business Month is centred on meeting a number of targets including promoting the discussion on the value of entrepreneurship while highlighting the relationship between entrepreneurship, sustainable development and the sustainable development goals. Deputy Chief Sustainable Development and Environment Officer Don Pianophonial highlighted some initiatives to come on stream. To involve the preparation of a specific proposal for the implementation of a set of measures to help address climate change, agreed among stakeholders to be submitted to an identified funding source for implementation. The consultation on the climate change private sector engagement strategy is scheduled for 19th to 20th November 2018. A number of activities will be held from the 1st to the 30th of November to commemorate St. Lucia Business Month. That's Nation Beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.