 More news on the Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan. Policy Intervention No. 24 deals with supporting the business environment by fast-tracking legislation for increased access to finance. This benefits the financial sector and the average citizen by stimulating positive economic activity. It will also encourage lending institutions to be less risk-averse and bureaucratic in issuing loans as well as better address the issue of non-performing loans. The Department of Finance, via the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, NTPC, has been instrumental in coordinating two legislative reform projects, namely the Secure Transactions in Movable Properties Bill and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill, with technical assistance provided by the World Bank. Consulted lawyer for the Government of St. Lucia, Bota-Maknamara, has been engaged in the implementation and harmonization of both pieces of legislation. He said the proposed reforms will aid in the movement of credit, which allows businesses or individuals to move from a point of stagnation to economic drivers. When you hear bankruptcy, one may question, how does that help in credit? So what the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act does is it permits users of the Act to restructure their liabilities and in doing so, release themselves from burdensome and bad debt, allow them to put those debts into better standing and allow the entity, be it themselves or their company, to now become an economic driver again. So bad debt becomes good debt and companies that are now struggling move to become thriving companies again. Bank leader and economist with the NCPC, Shaba Mathre, referenced the importance of the security interest in movable properties legislation to the business sector when accessing finance from local banks. She said businesses and individuals can now utilize their movable assets, such as vehicles, industrial equipment, accounts receivables, bank accounts among other assets as collateral towards loans. This is a very significant project for the private sector because we know that access to financing has been a long standing issue for the private sector and that is because the average small business owner, the average entrepreneur, the average person operating any business in Senusha does not have assets in the form of land and building and so giving them the opportunity to use their valuable assets within their business basically opens the opportunities for getting access to finance so as to start businesses, expand on their businesses, take up new projects within the businesses. Users of the security interest in movable properties bill will have the added confidence that their interest will be registered in an online collateral registry within the High Court. Before lenders were always hesitant because there wasn't a very good registration system, the registry that is envisioned herein will allow for very clear and open recognition of security interests and therefore give lenders comfort when they are giving money based on the security of a movable asset that the world is aware of their interest and that means they can now collect on that interest if they need to and that will allow smaller businesses access to the credit which they may not have had in the past. Various take holder consultations were conducted by the consultant and the team from the World Bank with the Senusha Bankers Association, the Senusha Chamber of Commerce, sections of the legal profession and accountants among others in refining all aspects of the proposed reforms. As it currently stands, the bills that should be presented to parliament are in a form that I believe is satisfactory to all stakeholders. They have given their comments, we have gone into the act, the bills that amended them to suit and hopefully have a workable solution that now benefits all stakeholders. The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council is optimistic that these two significant pieces of legislation, which will directly benefit the business sector, will be enacted before the first half of 2021. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.