 Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution presented by the Honourable Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to borrow some US $3.7 million, $704,000, or EC $10 million from the Caribbean Development Bank 10-cycle loan facility to support our micro, small and medium enterprises post COVID recovery at an interest rate of 0.75% per annum on the amount of the principal, this boost and outstanding. Mr. Speaker, I am lending my support to this borrowing for several reasons. Firstly, Mr. Speaker, we all know that COVID directs a debilitating blow to businesses worldwide, especially micro and small businesses. In St. Lucia, many of our small businesses had to close their doors. They could not meet operating costs. They could not pay their staff. They could not pay the rent. They could not purchase stock. They could not pay the electricity bill. They could not pay the water bill. In fact, Mr. Speaker, businesses were on their knees. They did not know what to turn. And most of them, when you had a conversation with the owners and they were abusing all their savings. Mr. Speaker, for those who survived, they had serious cash flow problems. And for them, the future looked bleak. Worldwide, governments responded in various ways to address the situation by providing subsidies, stimulus packages, tax breaks, amnesties, grants and loans at no or low interest rates. And the list goes on. So, Mr. Speaker, in response to this situation, our government, the government of the St. Lucia Labour Party, made a promise to the business community in our party manifesto on page 9, paragraph 12. And I read from that document, notwithstanding the government proposed targeted assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises, a business recovery strategy unit will be established within the Ministry of Commerce to assist by way of special concessions and technical support. Companies which have been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and approach. That is a commitment that was made by the St. Lucia Labour Party before getting into office. So, Mr. Speaker, today, at about, just after four, on the 22nd of November, after five, this promise is being fulfilled in this honourable house in St. Lucia. Mr. Speaker, for the first time, small businesses in St. Lucia are receiving focused, focused attention. Yes, read out your position. For the first time, small businesses in St. Lucia are receiving focused attention from the government, a government that made a promise to put the people first. Mr. Speaker, this facility will be allocated for financial and technical support to our MSMEs island-wide. The loan grant facility will be disbursed at a ratio of 70% grant and 30% concessionary loans to entrepreneurs with a viable business idea, whether seeking to start a new business or to expand a current operation. Mr. Speaker, the initiative also intends to provide targeted training and technical support to participants in areas such as financial management, marketing and development of the e-commerce capacity. This intervention, Mr. Speaker, and several other interventions being undertaken by the Ministry of Commerce, some of them I outlined earlier today, are all focused on preparing small business owners and entrepreneurs to better understand business operations, improve financial literacy, as well as embracing digitisation and e-commerce. Mr. Speaker, apart from the business forum, the Small Business Development Centre has been hosting what we call virtual lean-converse business plan models and design thinking workshops for the better part of this year. To date, we have 62 individuals island-wide who have attended and received certification from the lean-converse workshop and are now equipped to prepare their business plans. Currently, a two-day business plan workshop is slated for November 24th and 25th, that is Thursday and Friday, what we learn in Sufra. That training is sponsored by the Embassy of Taiwan. In addition, there is a design thinking workshop currently underway, which commends yesterday and continues up to November 25th. This will soon be followed by another lean-converse workshop, a mark for November 29th to December 2nd. Basically, this is providing you with a snapshot of the portfolio of activities planned just within a 10-day period to enable our business owners to be adequately prepared for this facility. Mr. Speaker, just last week, we engaged personnel from the OAS while attending a workshop in Ecuador. We engaged them seeking additional funding for training in business plan preparation. We think we need to intensify this training in order for us to effectively and efficiently disbridge the funds to the business community. Mr. Speaker, on the medium-small micro digital enhancement program, my ministry is seeking to build e-commerce capacity and digital presence of our MSMEs. Component 1 of the program is now being implemented. Focuses on identifying and developing our local digital platforms, readying them to meet international standards as it relates to security and accessibility. Under Component 2, my ministry will facilitate the uptake of these platforms by our beneficiary MSMEs, enabling them to conduct business online, being able to transact digitally across both the domestic and export market. Mr. Speaker, the business world has changed. It is no longer business as usual. To remain competitive, our businesses must now move away from the mere brick and mortar and secure an online presence in the global sphere. Again, my ministry in collaboration with the Organization of American States has launched the Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative to help women in the OECS region embrace the digital economy. This initiative is a three-year project which encourages women to be more cognizant of the possibilities and benefits of a digital economy. Mr. Speaker, this morning I mentioned about the Business Banking and Regulatory Compliance Symposium and there we presented the concept of what we are doing to a captive 60 business owners and other stakeholders in preparing them to capitalise on this opportunity. And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, all those who are present are ready to embrace this micro small-grant facility. Mr. Speaker, our MSME accounts for more than 50% of our GDP and 80% of jobs or roughly 39,000 jobs in our country. They have a significant impact on our island's economy and social fabric. Therefore, providing relief to these businesses is not only a nice thing to do, but rather it is the correct thing to do. It must be part of our core mission as well as our strategy to grow our economy and contribute to the social and economic development of our women, youth and youth, which forms a major part of this sub-sector. Mr. Speaker, the low-grant facility will be launched in the coming weeks subject to receiving the stamp of approval from this august body. So, I humbly exhort our members to provide that support to this resolution. So, Mr. Speaker, who will benefit from this facility? I can tell you, based on the decisions that we've made, the inclusion nationals between the ages of 31 and 60. Those younger will focus on the youth economy. Owners of incorporated or registered businesses, operating within the following priority sectors, agriculture, agro-processing, agrotourism, manufacturing, services including ICT, beauty and wellness, and professional services. Persons who can demonstrate their ability to fulfill their business ideas or propositions upon receipt of this low-grant facility. Mr. Speaker, the low component will be disbursed at a maximum compounded interest rate of 3 percent, with very little or no collateral required. This is specifically designed to make the facility accessible and affordable. Mr. Speaker, a special evaluation committee comprising representatives of the private and public sector will be established to review and approve applications which must be accompanied with a business plan. The funds will be disbursed by the Sanctucia Development Bank on the advice of that evaluation committee. Mr. Speaker, our yardstick within the Ministry of Commerce is for a 14-day period between application of the loans and disbursements. We believe that we must be agile and we must set the example for our businesses. So within the Ministry of Commerce, we continue to refine our processes and that is why we have been going out around the island trying to get with our business forum to get persons interested, to get persons who start registering and now we are training people to prepare their business plans. So as soon as this process of getting this resolution approved here and the loans disbursed by the Caribbean Development Bank, we want our businesses to be in a position to benefit. We do not want this. Our businesses have been waiting for a long time and now we want to deliver. So Mr. Speaker, when we have looked, the question one might have is what is the maximum amount of loan or grant that a business can receive? The analysis that we have done is for example, we have made provision for 110 pre-ventures and that is persons that would come with a new business idea and these persons would receive up to $10,000 in the first instance between grant funding and loan funding. So a person with a new idea, if a properly prepared business plan after evaluation by the committee would receive a maximum of $7,000 in grant funding and $3,000 in loan funding. We've made provision for 110 of these new ventures which is going to be $1.1 million out of the allocation. For startup enterprises, less than two years in operation, Mr. Speaker, based on our database, we've made provision for 220 of these and the maximum loan grant facility for these startups would be $20,000. So the maximum grant for startup enterprises with less than two years in operation, your maximum grant would be $14,000 and your maximum loan $6,000, a total of $20,000. So we've made provision for 220 of these businesses that would be a total of $4.4 million and establish enterprises over two years that is more than two years in operation, the maximum would be $25,000 in between loan and grant funding and we've made provision for 120 of those operations making a total of $3 million. So out of the $10 million, Mr. Speaker, we have made provision for $8.5 million going directly to the business community between loan and grant funding, Mr. Speaker. The balance of $1.5 will go into, I think about $500 is going to SLDB for the disbursement for the fees in disbursement and the other million dollars would be in technical support to ensure and hand holding to ensure that these businesses survive. That is the sustainability program that we have put together, Mr. Speaker. So Mr. Speaker, what are some of the conditions of the loan, what we can use those funds for and we've looked at it and we said equipment upgrade and modernization, food safety standards, certification and regulation, purchase of raw material, purchase of direct supply, supplies, acquisition of special purpose vehicles, a contribution to that and the grant funds can be used to collateralize larger load amounts within the same targeted areas, technical assistance, marketing services, product and service development, quality and environmental, environment systems, retrofitting facilities to attain a specific standard, international food, quality and environment standards, training programs, promotional materials such as brochures, catalogs, videos, catalogs, videos, implementation of IT solutions, example website, e-commerce and multimedia, packaging and design of packaging material and protection of intellectual property activities, brand registration and patents. The businesses will not be able to use the funding for the following, overhead expenses such as salaries and wages, sponsorship, personal use, traveling costs, individual scholarships or training that is things that are personal to the owner, acquisition of general motor vehicles, they cannot use those funds to pay interest on another loan, they cannot pay, they cannot use it to settle a rise of taxation, they cannot use it to pay other debts and they cannot use it to finance items that has been funded from another area. So, Mr. Speaker, further to the launching of this to what we are doing, we intend to launch the MSME policy almost at this point and the MSME policy, Mr. Speaker, is to assist MSMEs for sustainable growth and development and to enhance the operational and regulatory environment in which they operate. This document will be presented to the cabinet of ministers and then be implemented. Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Commerce so far has some 7,000 registered MSME clients and each month we welcome some 100 new registrants in the family. May I add that out of this number, more than 50 percent of our clients are women, Mr. Speaker. So, I am extremely pleased that this intervention this afternoon is going to address in a very big way our women, Mr. Speaker, because you know when you have placed most, when you look at our business, especially our small and micro businesses, the majority are women and that is our, yes, the majority are women and as we know our own structure and story in St. Lucia that we have quite a few women as heads of households. So, what we are doing this afternoon is to transform lives and livelihoods, transform lives and livelihoods. So, Mr. Speaker, permit me to repeat a line from a distinguished African author who states and I quote, when you do the things in the present that you can see, you are shaping the future that you are yet to see. So, this afternoon I want to say to you that in addition to the members present here the staff at the Ministry of Commerce and especially the SBDC and Commerce and Industry have worked hard to ensure that this program is a reality. So, Mr. Speaker, today when we think of what we are doing, when we think of the actions that we are taking today that is going to impact tomorrow, this can be manifested if our micro and small business owners, our small entrepreneurs with five or less employees, graduating to become small and medium enterprises, moving steadily along the line from cottage industry to captains of industry and to move from vending booths to international markets. This is why members on both sides of this honorable house should give support to this grant room facility. Mr. Speaker, our actions today that is going to impact tomorrow is evidence and businesses become regional exporters after being awarded fiscal incentives by the government. This is why we must help them start now. This is why we must support this resolution. Our actions today that is going to impact tomorrow is highly evident when our government allocate half a million dollars on the operationalization of the national agricultural diagnostic facility to ensure conformity to standards in the agricultural and manufacturing sector in terms of our agro processing in order to guarantee food safety, food security, and increased competitiveness of compliance to solution products in the domestic and regional market. Mr. Speaker, by supporting this resolution and this grant loan facility, we are investing to improve the business ecosystem. Mr. Speaker, our actions today that is going to impact tomorrow is when our government continue to invest in exports and crucial to source new markets, our local goods and services, and increase the volume and value of our export. That is why members on both sides of this honorable house must make this technical and financial support available to our small businesses. Mr. Speaker, action today impacting tomorrow is when our governments come to this August chamber to seek approval for a loan of easy 10 million dollars to resuscitate our MSMEs which are the bad bones of our economy to give them the opportunity to survive and to go. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to thank in a big way our Honourable Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, a visionary leader for his intervention in expediting this loan application process and I applaud him for his unwavering support for the business community. Mr. Speaker, this government promised to put our people first. This resolution before us is evident that this promise also includes our micro and small businesses. Mr. Speaker, let me close by thanking the business community, especially the owners of our MSMEs for their patience, tenacity and perseverance. Today is a momentous occasion for our MSMEs. Your government has kept its promise and placed you first. So I look forward to political callers and personal persuasions being set aside as we unanimously approve this loan grant facility for our micro and small business sector. They really need it and deserve all our support. May God help us as we try to bring new energy in our small business sector. I thank you.