 Welcome to the NTN Nightly. I'm Nisha Charles. This edition stops stories. The common entrance results are in showing improved student performance. A legislative framework enabling small businesses easier access to finance is well on its way. A mass campaign for national vaccine coverage, all that plus the latest in youth development, sports and the NTN Nouvelle Arquéon. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Shasne will on Wednesday 3 July 2019 assume the chairmanship of the Carracom Conference of Heads of Government. Hon. Shasne will also retain responsibility as lead for sustainable development and climate change within Carracom's quasi-cabinet. In this role, Prime Minister Shasne will continue to advocate for a more resilient region. Already, St. Lucia has taken a significant step towards sustainable development in the area of food security. St. Lucia's recent implementation of its Food and Vegetable Import Substitution Project falls in line with Carracom's thrust towards food security within the region. With a food import bill of over 4 billion US dollars, Carracom's Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque says the Caribbean community has encouraged member states to produce national action plans aimed at reducing their food import bills. LaRocque made the comments during a press conference on Tuesday leading up to the 40th regular meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government. We have, at the Carracom level, prepared and adopted a food and nutrition security policy. Member states have used that. It was done in a modular format and member states have used that to develop their own national food and nutrition security policies. Some of them have actually gone further and done action plans. The Secretary has worked with these member states all along the way in sometimes even providing technical support through funding that we may have received from FAO or one of the other organizations. If FAO and IECA have collaborated with us very, very much on that and CARDI, it's a collaborative effort to work with the member states. And if I'm not mistaken, just about all of the member states, technical assistance was provided to the member states to prepare national action plans. Ambassador LaRocque revealed that discussions will take place with the private sector in member states to find out what is needed to boost production of various products, agro-production being one of them. What is needed? What we do with the CSME is to create the environment to allow for the trade in goods to take place without any hindrance as much as is possible. But the governments don't produce. The Secretary doesn't produce anything in terms of food. That is, we produce a lot of documents, but not food. But Peter, behave yourself. But this is the private sector who produce the food and what is it that we require for them. So that's been a discussion that we're hoping to have with the private sector at the next sitting. All member states will be represented at the 40th regular meeting of the Conference of Heads of Governments from the 3rd to the 5th of July in St. Lucia. The Caribbean single market and economy, blacklisting, crime and security, climate change, resilience financing for small island developing states and border issues are expected to feature prominently at the conference. Meantime, the fisheries sector is receiving due attention as an economic contributor. Under the theme gender equity and ocean health supporting access to markets for small scale fishers, the Department of Fisheries in collaboration with the Casstrees Fisher's Cooperative Society, A1 Marine Supplies Inc. and KP Marine Supplies hosted its Fisher's Clinic. The event was an opportunity to foster and strengthen relationships with Fisher folk and other industry partners as well as promote improved lifestyles through health and wellness among Fisher folk. President of the Casstrees Fisher's Cooperative, Thaddeus Augustin says the clinic was geared towards meeting the needs of the Fisher folk. The question was asked, are we really relevant? Are we really producing what we're supposed to produce to enhance the life of the fishers? And the Department of Fisheries came up with the answer. We need to make ourselves relevant and hence the reason why we're going to have what we call the Fisher's Clinic. So what we've seen happening here, the Department of Fisheries are actually making themselves relevant to deal with the various needs of our fishers. Attendants were able to gain tips on how to do engine repairs, get free engine diagnostic tests, financial planning tips as well as tips on reducing marine pollution. Chief Fisheries Officer Serita Williams-Peter gave the feature address at the opening of the Fisher's Clinic. Williams-Peter has highlighted that impressing upon Fisher's the importance of safety at sea is the job of not just government but industry partners as well. Last year 307 vessels were licensed to fish by the Department of Fisheries. And in that same year we have figures that an estimated 30 fishing vessels experience distress at sea. So that's 10% of vessels. But we know and we know that the percentage is much higher because many of our fishers report distress at sea sometimes direct to other fishers or to their Fisher Cooperatives. Just over 70% of the reports of fishers with distress at sea is as a result of engine problems. Secondary to that is their vessel taking on water. Further compounding the situation is the number of fishing vessels with crew that choose not to carry all safety equipment. When venturing out to sea on a fishing trip. The Fisher's Clinic was held in celebration of Caribbean Fisher Folk Day. The measure of education, innovation, gender relations and sustainable development has been analysing the results of the Common Entrance examinations. 2,293 students registered for the Common Entrance examinations and 2,270 wrote the examinations. The national mean for 2019 stood at 60.09% and the composite scores ranged from 9% being the minimum to 97% being the maximum. An overall improvement in the performance of the students over the 2018 examinations was noted. Constance Rene is the assessment officer in the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development. I also want to commend the schools who performed very well and commend our boys for showing a greater presence in the top 10. Last year we had only three boys, 6th place, 7th place and 10th place featuring in the top 10. This year we have four boys, three of them second and one sixth. So that is a great improvement for our boys. The number of students obtaining zero in English declined from 534 in 2018 to 323 in 2019. There was also a decline in the overall mean from 61.46 in 2018 to 60.81 in 2019. The number of students obtaining zero in mathematics problem solving part 1 and 2 fell to 445 in 2019 from 462 in 2018 with the mean falling from 56.57 in 2018 to 55.01 in 2019. The mean for the general paper increased from 62.24 in 2018 to 64.45 in 2019. Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, Michelle Charles, noting the challenges faced by students indicated that more must be done to assist were possible. One of the other areas that we really have to focus on is what interventions do we provide for those students who perform poorly at the common entrance exam. Because we send those children to secondary schools and we expect them to compete with other students who are performing way above their level. For us at the Ministry, we decided to engage the Care Institute this year and I'm sure many of you are familiar with the kind of program that is offered at Care. And Care has agreed to adopt or to take on board 50 of our students who perform between well in our case this year 9% and 30% and allow them to follow the junior life program at the Care Institute. The top 10 students consisted of four boys and six girls. In first place, Marie Therese Sinclair of the Dame Paulette-Louisey Primary School with 97% assigned to the St. Joseph's Convent. Tied for second place is Kai Armstrong of Augier Combined with 95.33 assigned to Viford Comprehensive Secondary School. Ajani Philip of the Dame Paulette-Louisey Primary School with 95.33 assigned to St. Mary's College. Savion Roseman of the Camille Henry Memorial School with 95.33 assigned to the St. Mary's College. Fifth place, Brianna Lachov of the Carmen Reni Memorial School with 94.67 assigned to St. Joseph's Convent. Tied for sixth place, Elsa Donis of the Dame Paulette-Louisey Primary School with 94% assigned to St. Joseph's Convent. Destiny Daniel of the Dame Paulette-Louisey Primary School with 94% assigned to St. Joseph's Convent. Mekai Philip of the Dame Paulette-Louisey Primary School with 94 assigned to St. Mary's College. Tied for seventh place, Shiloh George of the Ave Maria Girls Primary School with 93.67 assigned to St. Joseph's Convent. And the killer to serve the Ave Maria Girls Primary School with 93.67 assigned to St. Joseph's Convent. For the Government Information Service, I am General Norville. Work on the secure transactions in movable properties legislation is now into its second phase with the development of the legislative framework and appropriate regulations. Access to finance had been a long-standing issue for the private sector, particularly small and medium enterprises. Glenn Simon explains how the legislation will remedy the situation. A survey of St. Lucian businesses revealed that access to finance ranks number one in the top 10 business environment constraints with the cost of electricity and transportation running a distance second and third respectively. It is for this reason, coupled with the thrust to improve the ease of doing business climate in St. Lucia, that the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, NCPC, embarked on the introduction of legislative reform aimed at facilitating the use of movable assets as collateral. Economist with the NCPC, Sharma Mathre, explains. Businesses as well as individuals will be able to utilize their valuable assets such as accounts receivables, industrial equipment, inventory, etc., as collateral in order to apply for loan financing within banks and other financial institutions. Mathre noted that lending institutions on island concentrate almost exclusively on real or movable property such as house and land, as there is an established legal and registry framework which support the rights in real property. This requirement, however, inhibits the growth and productivity of many small business operators who do not possess the requirements for traditional loan financing. This is very detrimental to your wider economy because it basically prevents private sector expansion because it basically inhibits new businesses from being able to be formed and be able to employ persons. It inhibits existing businesses from being able to expand the operations. It inhibits businesses from being able to access export financing in order to market the goods and services to other regional and international markets. Executive Director of the San Lucia Manufacturers Association, Paula Cauldron, welcomes the introduction of the Secure Transactions in movable properties legislation, while indicating that the customer, the lender and other parties must be well protected to be able to use the legislation as part of regular business transactions. And the reason why a lot of persons have difficulty with access in finance is because they have no tangible security. So as a business person you may have two vans, a car, but the bank would not take a bill of sale over that as security to lend you some money if they are not sure and they cannot verify whether this movable property is not mortgaged or assigned to another financial institution. And these things are easy to transfer. You can move them from point A to point B with a blink of an eye because with the legislation it will also help us because it also will cover if we have assets in another territory we can look at using that asset to secure financing in San Lucia. It is expected that the Secure Transactions in movable properties legislation would be approved before the end of this financial year and it will be accompanied by the establishment of an online collateral registry of movable assets which will be housed within the High Court. Sharon Gardner Hippolit, former registrar of the High Court clarified how the registry will work. It would be something that is online. You don't physically have to come in. You would be able to go and search and be able to identify if a person has any loan on a particular vehicle if you want to enter into a transaction. Now, in terms of privacy, obviously it's not open to everybody to be able to do that so you want to make sure that it's secure. There are aspects of privacy because quite frankly I don't think you and I would want Average Joe Public to just go on to the online registry, type in our name and ascertain exactly what we own and where we own it. The NCPC plans to ramp up its sensitization efforts with key stakeholders and the general public regarding the secure transactions in movable properties legislation as the implementation date draws closer. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting. And this is the NTN Nightly. Ryan O'Brien is up next. Keeping hands clean is important for good health. However, after a disaster staying clean is hard to do, especially if there is no pipe or water. Simple things you can do stay clean and remain healthy are wash your hands with soap and clean water. If these are not available, sanitizers with alcohol are options. Wash your hands many times during the day before preparing food, eating, caring for a sick person or baby, treating a cut wound or sore. Wash hands after using the bathroom, changing diapers, caring for animals, caring for sick or injured persons after handling garbage. Washing your hands is one of the best ways to prevent illness. For further information, contact the Bureau of Health Education at telephone number 468-5349. Welcome back. We join Ryan O'Brien for the latest happenings in youth development and sports. Thanks, Nisha. Welcome once again to your update from the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports on the NTN Nightly News. I'm Ryan O'Brien. Minister responsible for youth development and sports, the Honourable Edmund Estefan, says there is a new format for school sports and that with continued consultation with all stakeholders being undertaken, better things can be expected in the near future as far as improvements in school sporting events are concerned. Minister Estefan made the remarks while delivering the feature address at last week's school sports awards ceremony held at the St Mary's College auditorium. We believe that in time the benefits of this format will be brought to the fore with the private sector partnering with us as usual. And the aim is to make sports a lot bigger and better. And so more changes are expected in the new academic year. A team from the Ministry is already having consultations with the various stakeholders to ensure the input of all and that we get something that is very comprehensive and that is acceptable. In fact, based on the new format, all matches in all competitions have been scheduled to ensure maximum playing time without compromising academic contact time for our students. And so all of us will win. Outstanding school sports female personality Zedah James of the Archiport Secondary School reflects on her performances for her school during the last academic and sporting year, especially playing cricket at both the under-19 and under-15 age categories. James, who is also a national female representative at Runer Island Selectee, said it brought her great joy being able to exhibit her talent at various levels. I showed the bigger boys my talent. Everybody saw and they were excited coming out to see me play and surprised. Because they wouldn't expect a female player beating all these boys in the under-19 and the under-15, it was not a very hard competition. I just had to take my time and stay in the wicket so that becomes current on the board. James was named Female School Sports Personality at the recent School Sports Awards. And that's how we end our update today from Youth Development and Sports. I'm Ryan O'Brien. Thanks Ryan. The Department of Health and Wellness recently launched a vaccination campaign aimed at ensuring national vaccine coverage of 95% or more in children aged 0 to 5 years. More from Phanelle Neptune. Let us remind ourselves of the importance of vaccination. The National Vaccination Campaign is aimed at ensuring that parents and guardians get the children vaccinated and protected against vaccine-preventable diseases. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Meline-Fedrix Jean says this campaign is extremely important and is hoped that children will be vaccinated before the reopening of school in September. Through the vaccination campaign, community nurses will be going into homes, schools and communities to follow up directly with parents and children who wish to be immunized but may have missed one or more vaccines. With the parents' consent because we will not do anything without parents' consent, children will be administered vaccines as per our protocol to ensure that they are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. We will also be reviewing our data processes and improve the use of the electronic patient record system for documenting and reporting on the percentages of our children who have received all vaccines in a timely manner. Minister for Health and Wellness, Senator the Honourable Mary Isaac says it is necessary that everyone play a part to ensure that all children are fully vaccinated in synclutio. Our timing is so very appropriate because this is the year where we are saying we want everybody to be in and our theme speaks to us getting everybody in. So the most important thing here for us today is for you to understand why you have to get vaccinated and for you to get everybody to come in and get vaccinated because we want 100% coverage from all kinds of diseases and so on and so forth. Representative of the Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations, Stephen August, applauded the collaboration between the departments to ensure the community is protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Collectively, we must engage in a coordinated approach to push the message that it is the right of all to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases and at the same time have access to quality public health services. I urge the Ministry of Health to continue to build on the achievements and gains that have been made over the years and work tirelessly to deal with the shortfall of vaccination that may still exist in certain areas. The vaccination campaign is being held under the theme, all in get vaccinated. The campaign will run from July to September 2019. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. And stay with the NTN Nightly. Up next, Primers-Hartensen is here with the NTN Nouvelle-Arquéon. Thank you very much. I would like to thank the Department of Health and Wellness for the information that has been given to me by the government. This is GIS, the National Television Agency for the NTN. Thank you very much. Primers-Hartensen, thank you very much. I would like to thank the Chief of the Department of Health and Wellness for the information that has been given to me by the government. My name is Mekwidi, I'm a Royalton Hotel, starting on the 4th of April. This is Chief of the Department of Health and Wellness, Kaya Settlesi, starting on the 5th of July, when the Prime Minister is here with me, Alan Shasne, and Prime Minister Shasne Kaya. You can put this here to just keep the money here. This is an activity to start with, to start with the March, and then the course, associated with the North Payah, which is the course. So, Rodney Bay, to build the Marysil, and the Diplomat Caricom, to also participate in the Gov, which is the wine bottle. At the same time, the Chief of the Department of Health and Wellness, Kaya Settlesi, Kaya Settlesi, Kaya Settlesi, Kaya Settlesi, Kaya Settlesi, Kaya Settlesi, Kaya Settlesi. The Genese Ambassador of Kaya Settlesi, Nyon Wekont, and Secretary General for Caricom, is the Genese Ambassador of Laroque, Lady Oswey, in the GIS studio. This is to offer the Genese an opportunity to question the Laroque Ambassador, in this situation, to organize the Genese in Caricom, so that the people of Caricom can know more about the relationship with Caricom. This is to offer the Laroque Ambassador an opportunity to answer several questions such as the commitment to Caricom to assist the Genese. And also the Genese Ambassador of Settlesi, such as her staff and the Laroque Ambassador. This is my colleague, GACSB Francis. All of the Genese ambassadors are questions, and particularly the General Ambassador of Laroque, that is why I am so excited to plan the action for Genese, a regional system that will help the Genese. And also a system of investment. that he could have a consideration to do for the youth. The youth prisoners who attended the Salah Discussion, who did it for the public, and their social media, asked this question to Ambassador Lerocke to look at how to carry out his first assist to the youth. Secretary General Ambassador Lerocke promised that he would carry out the whole situation for the youth, and that's what I have proposed in New York. I want to have a relationship with these youths who have found good assistance. Ambassador Lerocke promised that he would continue to work for the youth, and that he would continue to work for the youth. I wish you all the best. Thank you very much. I would like to thank Kaipunga for the responsibility for the Chief of the Conforces Charicom for the six months that have come. I would also like to thank you for the responsibility for the development of the climate change. I would like to thank Dr. Gil Rigobot, the one-for-se foundation, for this to continue to become more active. And also for engaging effectively in the work of the international and regional community. Minister Rigobot, I would like to thank you for this delegation for the preparation for the UN conference to address the climate action in Abu Dhabi, which began on July 20th. The conference was addressed by Fogui, which I have already done, considering all of this to be done in this climate. I have also identified and developed proposals to make a lot of action and initiatives that can be carried out in an announcement that will be made in Somit-Sala. The UN Secretary General will be in Somit-Sala in September this year to develop a solution in six directions to address the way to serve energy in front of the sun, the way to build a first-court natural disaster in Cyclone, the way to maintain agriculture and the way to promote it, and to use resilience and adaptation of the climate situation and to manage the public and the public well. I would like to thank our new minister, Mr. O'Tham, for inviting us. I would also like to invite Mr. Primoz Kossidi to present a lot of new ideas. I would like to thank Mr. O'Tham. Mr. Opil Primus, and here's a look at what's happening to us, weather-wise. Fair to partly cloudy skies with a few brief showers. A tropical wave located over the eastern tropical Atlantic is moving westward at about 26 miles per hour or 43 kilometers per hour. This wave is expected to affect the region on Thursday. Another tropical wave located over the far eastern tropical Atlantic is moving westward at about 15 miles per hour or 24 kilometers per hour. Tropical Cyclone formation is not expected over the tropical Atlantic during the next five days. The tide for Cassie's Harbor was high at 4.23 p.m. and will be low again at 8.43 p.m. The tide for Vaffor Bay was high at 5.30 p.m. and will be low again at 10.10 p.m. The seas moderate to locally rough with waves 47 feet or 1.2 to 2.1 meters. Small craft operators and sea bathers are advised to exercise caution due to above normal seas. The sun will rise Wednesday at 5.40 a.m. And that brings us to the end of the NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7 p.m. with a repeat at 7 a.m. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I'm Lucia Charles.