 Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth from the United Kingdom and Merit Rebellion visited St Lucia to witness first hand some of the adaptation projects funded by the UK government. One of the key projects she visited was the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road Rehabilitation Project. I'm really looking forward to seeing for myself exactly where this road will go and to understand just how important it's going to be for so many of St Lucia's residents but also, of course, for tourists as they come to visit your wonderful island. Minister Trebellion is also the adaptation and resilience champion for COP26, hosted in the UK this year. She noted that vulnerable countries like St Lucia face challenges due to big climatic changes, such as flooding, which washes away roads. She stressed the importance of building new structures with resilience in mind, understanding the impacts of climate change. We are doing the same in the UK. We are building roads that have to be more resilient to our weather shocks and that's part of what we want to be doing as we make sure that the funds that we spend to help infrastructure for those countries that need it too is doing exactly the same thing so that St Lucia citizens have the opportunity to benefit from solid infrastructure, which means that economic growth can continue and we can see St Lucia go from strength to strength. The minister and her team received an overview of the Millennium Highway project, which outlined areas such as project scope, requirements, funding, risks, and project timeline. Covenant Secretary and Ministry of Infrastructure Iva Daniel, who accompanied the minister on the tour, said this is a project that all St Lucia should be excited about due to the road safety, sustainability, and resilience considerations featured in the design of the project. This project, the design wasn't, I could say, not the typical design. It's one where we, in there was the issue of the climate vulnerability assessment that had to be conducted prior to, and that had to inform the design that the consultant had to put together. The consultant also had to take into consideration the outcome of an IRAP study, which is a road safety study, and there are also other issues of gender-related matters that have to be taken on board. We need to have taken on board the matters with the project-affected persons. We need to ensure that those vendors that will be displaced, that there is a new location for them, or there is some manner in which that would satisfy them that they can continue to survive in this country. He said the overall project has been divided into three lots. Lot 1 has been awarded, and is due to commence in September 2021. Lot 2 and 3 are being rescoped for rebidding. Nicholas Johnny is the project coordinator for the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road Rehabilitation Project. This represents a major infrastructural project of existing roads, approximately 40.2 kilometres of road. It commences in castries at the Burnon Roundabout, and it ends in Souffret at the Souffret Bridge, though. 6.1 kilometres from castries to Kaldesak. You have 11 kilometres from Kaldesak to Ansleray, inclusive of the reconstruction of the Ansleray Bridge, which will see the demolition of the existing bridge behind us and the reconstruction of a new bridge, a two-lane bridge. And then you have the final segment, which will be from Ansleray all the way down to Souffret. Along the tour, we spoke to two individuals from Marigo and Ansleray, respectively, who will be directly impacted by the project. They expressed their satisfaction with the level of consultation and arrangements made to facilitate them during and post project execution. It will be better for me in the long run, because I'm not really safe where I am, because I'm on the roadside, so I'm going to move further away from the road. Yes, we spoke to each other, but when I came to the block, I was very happy to speak to each other. I was very happy with the project, I accepted it, and I was very happy with the number, I was very happy with the problem. Because the project has been done for me, it has been done for the village, it has been done for all the machines, and I'm very happy with the number. I'm very happy with the number. The project is estimated at US $54 million, comprising UK safe funding of 69%, a CDB loan of 15%, and 17% is funded by the government of Saint Lucia. When completed, the project will improve the overall road network, improve infrastructural resilience and connectivity, which is projected to foster greater economic activity for Saint Lucia. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.