 Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of the resolution proposed by the Minister for Finance to borrow an amount of special drawing rights, $30.5 million, approximately $40 million from the International Development Association, better known as the World Bank, to finance the St. Lucia Sustainable Recovery Development Policy financing. Mr. Speaker, I did not come to this house to gallery today. I believe it is proper that this government concentrates its efforts on bringing back this country to fiscal sanity, and this is exactly what we are doing. The purpose of this loan, Mr. Speaker, is to support the recovery of St. Lucia to word a sustainable and resilient economy through two complementary, of course, strategies. Undoubtedly, Mr. Speaker, I was surprised when the Leader of the Opposition took the floor to accuse this government of A, B, and C. When prior to COVID, when the world economy was booming, he plunged St. Lucia into a recession, negative growth in 2019, and obviously, our ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. On the point of order, the member is misleading the House. The member continues to make the statement that we plunged the country in 2019 into a recession. A recession is when you have three consecutive quarters of negative growth. We simply had a 0.01% of negative growth that year, Mr. Speaker. That is not a recession by any means. Please proceed, member. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our government has embarked on a major reform program aimed at improving the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of this country. These actions taken by our government in strengthening the fiscal performance of government, stimulating private sector development, and transitioning to a green economy have been identified as prior actions for this loan provided by the World Bank. This clearly shows, Mr. Speaker, that the World Bank is very impressed with St. Lucia's current economic performance and the reforms that it is introducing to build sustainability and resilience in the economy. I will now briefly summarize those actions, Mr. Speaker. The central focus today of this borrowing, one is the strengthening of fiscal sustainability and responsibility, as well as supporting the new public financial management regulations, public procurement regulations, and the promulgation of the new public debt management. Mr. Speaker, that's what this thing is all about, not about the rural and the drama. We are here to introduce some reforms that will put the economy on a solid footing so we can deliver more to the people of this country to address the legitimate and pressing problems of our small, open, and vulnerable economy. Mr. Speaker, it is well known that a robust fiscal framework is critical for safeguarding fiscal sustainability and reducing the country's vulnerability to external shocks, natural disasters, and climate change. What's in that you cannot understand? Mr. Speaker, our development has been severely affected by the lack of fiscal space to enable us to finance important productive investments to generate economic growth and development, to boost employment, reduce poverty, and improve the standard of living. In this regard, Mr. Speaker, our government has taken significant action to expand the fiscal space. This borrowing supports the promotion of green and resilient private sector growth by supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as reforms to improve the business environment. This is what today is all about, not rural, not maipui, not unnecessary debate. It seeks to enhance access to finance through the insolvency bill, which is on the order paper today, for consideration and security interests in Moveable Property Act. Another action identified is the national energy policy which expected to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy by fostering the development of renewable energy sources, reducing energy imports and costs, and improving climate change adaptation. This is what today is all about, Mr. Speaker. This borrowing will give effect and support the Climate Change Act which was recently passed by this Honourable House. This act, Mr. Speaker, codifies an overarching legal framework to address the impacts of climate change and embed related considerations, including those related to mitigation, into existing and new sectoral laws with strong emphasis, strong emphasis, Mr. Speaker, on private sector engagement. That is the way a responsible and prudent government developed a country. All those things, Mr. Speaker, I am saying are well-documented, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, Mr. Speaker, many of these actions have been pursued by the government and in the space of just over two and a half years, our government has introduced significant reform measures aimed at developing a robust and resilient economy. This is well-established in the literature, in the public domain. Mr. Speaker, over the last two fiscal years, our government has made significant progress in improving the economic and fiscal performance of St. Lucia. Indeed, under the astute leadership of the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, St. Lucia experienced a remarkable economic recovery, registering economic growth rates of 12.2 percent and 18.1 percent in 2021 and 2022, respectively, after recording a slump of 25.4 percent in 2020. Mr. Speaker, again, those things are well-established in the public domain. That's information that is out there, Mr. Speaker. Our economic performance in 2021 and 2022 was the best in the ECCU region. And of course, apart from Guyana, that has oil. And I said during last year's debate that if we have coconut oil, we will grow even faster than Guyana. And of course, among the best growth rates in the world. The impressive economic performance has also been reflected in an improvement in our fiscal health. As the fiscal deficit and public debt to GDP has been significantly reduced, again, well-established in the literature, well-established in the public domain. I'm not making it up, Mr. Speaker. In this regard, Mr. Speaker, I wish to draw attention to our economic and social review. Caption summary of central government fiscal operations as a percentage of GDP. The primary deficit, which was 0.4 percent in 2019-2020 and then widened considerably to a deficit of 8.2 in 2020-2021, was reduced considerably, Mr. Speaker, to 2.2 percent in 2021-2022. Again, it is well documented. The fiscal turnaround was complete, Mr. Speaker. In 2022-2023, with a primary surplus of 1.2 percent being recorded, the public debt as a percentage of GDP has also been reduced from a high of 98.1 percent in 2020 to 69 percent in 2022. Again, Mr. Speaker, well-documented in the literature. Notwithstanding the significant achievements by our government in the last two-and-a-half years, Mr. Speaker, we all know that St. Lucia Faces' unique development challenges as a small island developing state. We are very small with limited resources, including land and labor. This, Mr. Speaker, limits our scope to diversified economy. Again, Mr. Speaker, you look at IMF publications and other publications that's well-recorded in those documents, Mr. Speaker. The St. Lucia economy is highly dependent on the tourism sector, making it highly vulnerable to external shocks that impact our major tourist markets, notably the United States and the United Kingdom. Again, Mr. Speaker, I do not have to invent those things. They are well-documented. Climate change also presents a major threat to our economy, both in the short term, through more intense storms, floods, droughts, and landslides, and in the long term, through hazards associated with sea-level rise and the increase in temperature. Mr. Speaker, well-established. You go to the IMF or World Bank websites and you will search the major issues impacting us, and they are well-recorded. Climate change is not only a major threat to tourism, but it also poses a major threat to the agricultural sector, including fishery sector, which is an important source of food and income, especially for our fisher folk. So among the most vulnerable in our society, Mr. Speaker, among the most vulnerable, and therefore, we must address the dislocation of the entire fabric of the St. Lucia economy to be able to deliver to the most vulnerable, as we have been doing, Mr. Speaker. These bottlenecks include, and before I address that, I must say another major challenge we face are the structural bottlenecks, which are major constraints to economic diversification and growth. You have heard economists debating all the time, and every workshop you go to, you have people talking about less diversified economy, but to diversify into what. But at some point, we must bite the bullet and decide how we are going to restructure the economy of this country. In terms of the structural changes we must make to ensure we develop a different model so we can deliver sustained benefits to the people that we serve and the people that we represent. These bottlenecks include low credit availability, the lack of regulatory framework to resolve insolvency and register property in adequate public infrastructure. Again, Mr. Speaker, all of those things are well-recorded. Moreover, Mr. Speaker, these bottlenecks have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in high interest rates, high inflation rates, and of course, we have a new conflict in the Middle East, an evolving morbid scenario that we do not know what is going to happen. Our government led by the Honorable Member for Kastri's East has taken action to confront the structural rigidities head-on with many of these actions being identified in this loan as prior actions. Again, if you go and you read the document associated with this borrowing, you are going to see all of those things articulated in terms of prior actions. These prior actions are identified, Mr. Speaker. I will highlight briefly the prior actions and how they intend to benefit and improve St. Lucia's economic performance. A number of prior actions have been undertaken, which seeks to strengthen fiscal sustainability and accountability. One of the measures taken by the government was to strengthen revenue enhancement to reduce the fiscal deficit by introducing the health and security levy and the excise tax on cigarettes. Mr. Speaker, the leader of the opposition alluded to it earlier, but when you are responding to economic challenges and you put a levy in place to deal with security and health, it is part of a holistic approach to responding to the challenges that we confront. This will allow the government to increase the fiscal space and undertake critical investment in health and security. In this regard, Mr. Speaker, we are aware of the ongoing construction works being undertaken at St. Jude and the construction of the new Grozile police station, as well as the refurbishment of other police stations, including the Euphot police station. That is what we are doing with the security levy. This is what we are doing with the health levy. Mr. Speaker, we have over the years underfunded the health and security sectors. Well established again. Our government has taken the bold step of introducing revenue measures to fund these critical sectors in the interest of improving our crime and security strategies and providing better healthcare to the citizens of St. Lucia. Mr. Speaker, there are times members opposite will cry about the most vulnerable, as if he is a new man that just appeared for the first time in this parliament as leader of the opposition. And he was not the one denying them income support during COVID. He pretends as if he is not the one who took away the laptops from the people of this country. He pretends as if he has all the answers to all the problems that we have, Faye J. Witout. Mr. Speaker, when we come to this house, we expect people to be cerebral about the engagement. And I have so far gone through a lot of information that is in the public domain. Just bringing it together, Mr. Speaker, to make the central point. We ensure that we did this in a fiscally responsible way by not increasing the fiscal deficit and the public debt of the country. We also wanted to minimize the impact on the people of St. Lucia by exempting a number of goods and services from the health and security levy. When the member of youth itself introduced that, over a hundred items were zero rated or exempted to protect the most vulnerable. And the debate on that or the health and security levy has nothing to do with the most vulnerable, but they engage in political mischief. Prior action too was approved by parliament recently, namely the enactment of the public debt management act, Mr. Speaker. The act specifies the purposes for which the executive can borrow. All of this is to increase fiscal prudence in this small and vulnerable economy of ours. It also strengthens the oversight of the executive by requiring annual reporting to parliament on debt management strategy implementation. The act also clarifies the process of domestic and external borrowing issuance of guarantees and on lending. It actually attempts to put the nuts and balls in place to ensure that the government is acting appropriately and prudent. Mr. Speaker, again, well established. The prior actions are well contained in the World Bank document. Prior action free refers to the implementation of the public procurement regulations which were approved by the minister of finance by statutory instrument, statutory instrument number 143 of 2023. The public procurement regulations implement the provisions of the public procurement act by providing in-depth requirements on key aspects of transparent, effective, and efficient public procurement. All of those things, Mr. Speaker, are well contained. The regulations provide details of the management of the procurement process, action for the implementation of the public finance management regulations. The act establishes clear roles and responsibilities for the ministry of finance and gives the minister of finance the authority to issue the regulations to enforce compliance. All of those things are well documented. It also aims to enhance resource management efficiency following a natural disaster. To support the implementation of the act, the accompanying PFM regulations provide detail guidance on various aspects of accounting, public debt, and cash management, treasury management, financial control, and external audit. Again, Mr. Speaker, well documented. Well documented. Prior actions free and for will promote transparency, accountability, and efficiency of the public resource utilization. Well documented. Well documented. What is the debate? What is the dispute? We will hear a loud noise being made by the opposition that we are borrowing more and more, but they will not tell you the reasons for the borrowing. It is clear from what I have said, Mr. Speaker, that the prior actions that we are implementing will help to strengthen the prudent fiscal policy being implemented by this government and provides additional resources to invest in critical areas to support economic growth and poverty reduction in St. Lucia. These actions will allow us to utilize our scarce resources more effectively by providing for best practice financial governance. Well documented. Well documented. We will not do like the previous government and squander our resources on useless projects like the procurement of incinerators, the new road built for the SH, the purchase of vaccines that up to now we have not received questionable direct awards and the list goes on and on, Mr. Speaker, wasting the country's money, wasting the country's resources. Why the people of this country were suckin' salt and they couldn't breathe during COVID because this government refused when they were there. Members opposite, refused. Refuse. You refuse to give the people the income support, the income support during COVID. You understand? The people needed income support and you receive, you receive from World Bank, IMF, CDB, the Taiwanese, the resources for income support to them, but you chose to continue on your merry way preparing for elections. But our government has taken steps to reduce the unemployment rate. With a rate falling from 21.7% in 2020 to 16.5% in 2022. Mr. Speaker, the private sector, especially small businesses, are faced with high fuel costs and limited access to financing. Both factors are critical for starting operating and expanding businesses and this is what this borrowing is all about in a holistic way. And you can go on the site and get the information. High energy costs and limited financing also exacerbate exposure to climate change and natural disasters. Climate change will continue to require policy changes aimed at reducing resilience on traditional fossil fuel energy sources. Again, Mr. Speaker, well-recognized and I could go on and on talking about the different prior actions that were of course necessary for us to get to today's borrowing. But Mr. Speaker, I will take my brief presentation to its logical conclusion by saying that St. Lucia has made considerable progress in implementing significant reforms in its fiscal architecture and in promoting private sector and green growth. These reforms are required to place the economy on a higher growth trajectory and achieve sustained development and this is what we are all about. As a small economy, the margin of error is quite limited and therefore we need to run a tight economy. I felt today I would pull the various strands and articulate them in this honorable house and they can go and double check it. I did not invent information but all the information is there. This loan will provide the government resources to help achieve these objectives. The loan is also on very favorable terms. It is to be repaired over a 40-year period with a 10-year grace period. The service charge is three-quarter of 1% on the withdrawn credit balance and the maximum commitment charge is half of 1% on the withdrawn balance. There are no interest charges on the loan, Mr. Speaker, and I believe, Mr. Speaker, that this is the way that a responsible Minister for Finance and responsible government go about the business of governance. Again, Mr. Speaker, I close by saying they can fact check the information because it's well contained on the various sites. I wish to therefore give my full support to this resolution, Mr. Speaker. I now yield the floor.