 The Bankers assisted in various ways for many years, but we are especially pleased to be the major supporting partner of the Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture for three main reasons. Firstly, Sir Arthur's life, work, and legacy, acknowledged by the greatest of his contemporaries as well as subsequent generations of both academics and practitioners in the field of development, stand out as a beacon to everyone, young and old, who seeks to understand and provide solutions to real problems. We are proud as an Indigenous institution and as Indigenous institutions must strive to do to support the honouring of his legacy and that of our other Nobel Laureate. Secondly, savings and encouraging people and countries to evolve from low savers to high savers as a means of increasing the availability of capital for development form a major plank of his theory of economic growth. He wrote that financial savings institutions must be significant and widespread. In that regard, Sir Arthur's views resonate with us at the Bank and our role in mobilising savings via our network of branches throughout the length and breadth of St. Lucia is in keeping with his thinking. Thirdly, in the guidance and technical advice that the Bank provides to people and small businesses and in the historical contribution that we have made to the educational and professional development of our people, we are in concert with Sir Arthur's enduring words. The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge. The words of Professor Paul Mosley and Barbara Ingham in their biography on Sir Arthur's life and work. His life and work truly embody a commitment to development that focuses on the human condition. Bank of St. Lucia is honoured to support the 2020 Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture. We at Bank of St. Lucia, thank you. So I am honoured to deliver the 2020 Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture here in Sir Arthur's homeland. As I understand it, this lecture series is two decades strong and counting. I recognise the impressive list of the illustrious speakers who have preceded me in this series, including Dr. LaCobbinier. Today, tonight, we continue to celebrate Sir Arthur Lewis's legacy as the most, the Caribbean's most renowned economist for his unmatched contribution to development economics for which he earned the Nobel Prize in 1979. I wish to acknowledge and thank the Impollet-Louisie Chair of the Committee for a gracious invitation to speak tonight and as part of this impressive schedule of events in this particular cycle. As again, we continue to remember, celebrate the towering contributions of St. Lucia's two Nobel Laureates, Sir Arthur Lewis and Sir Derek Walcott, on what would have been their 105th and 98th birthdays respectively. I commend the Impollet and the Laureate Festival Committee for their diligent service, including the excellent arrangements afforded me for this evening's event. These events do not merely serve as retrospectives to recognise the glorious achievements of St. Lucia's Nobel Laureates, as necessary and appropriate as that is, but inspire generation and future generations to make our unique contributions to our country and humanity. I wish to dedicate tonight's lecture to the youth of our region and especially the youth of St. Lucia. Far too often, too many of us make the mistake of believing that the youth's time is only in some undefined future, yet as Alvin Torfell, noted futurist and author of the Weillier came acclaim books, Future Shock and the Third Wave Assets, and I quote, The secret message communicated to the most young people today is that they are not needed, that a society will run itself quite nicely until they, at some distant point in the future, will take over the reins. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely, because the rest of us need all the energy, reins, imagination, and talent that young people can bring to bear on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is in the seal, end of quote. Now, the issue of youth marginalization in our region is real. Excuse me. Today, in many companies, ministries, committees, and even churches, there is a cultural war of sorts between the millennials and the mature, where the millennials often label as hot and sweaty and in a hurry. The consequence of this is a highly high level of disengaged and disaffected youth among both the employed and the unemployed. In tackling the formidable challenges now confronting our Caribbean civilization, we must of necessity bring to that enterprise the collective capital of all of our people, but especially the ideas, talent, energy, and urgency of our youth. And if we had any doubt about the capacity of our youth, we have to look no further than the wonderful production by the Archbishop of Souther Lewis Community College last evening, Style God of Earth. What a performance it was. St. Lucia's youth are capable. They simply need opportunity. As someone who has had as Persian's cast about my capacity to serve on account of my youthfulness, I offer you the youth of St. Lucia, that on which I have relied. First Timothy 412 of the Holy Scriptures, new international version, let no one despise your youth. It says, don't let anyone look down on you because you are young. But set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and purity. When I started my journey as a public servant, when I was appointed as the financial secretary in my 20s, late 20s, a headline appeared in a particular newspaper, Rookie Economist takes over the Ministry of Finance, suggesting that I had no competence or clue to handle the Ministry of Finance. I remember one gentleman in the ministry came to me and he said, Oh, are you looking at me with some disdain? And he said, I think this work is too big for you. Years later, he was man enough to return to me and said, I had my doubts, but you prove to be up to the challenge worthy of the trust conferred in you. Let no one chant you down or put you down. You have the ability to do well for your country. Here in St. Lucia, 43% of the population is on the age of 30. So I say they are our present and they are our future, and the future is now. Ladies and gentlemen, we must all for a transformed society that some of us may not fully experience, but which our youth, your children and my two daughters, Siris and Yonah, will inherit. I am motivated, so should you. Tonight's lecture is economic transformation by invitation and innovation. It is my considered view that the social democratic model that has served has run its course. It is my considered view. Indeed, our forays into citizenship by investment programs, international financial services and of late, medicinal marijuana are our determined attempts to find a niche to carve out a living force in a hostile global economy. That is what that is about, a search for a new model for survival. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot change our size. We cannot change our history. We cannot change our geography, but we can and must change our trajectory. That is in our hands. I truly believe that technology is a great equalizer for small states such as ours. But if we wish to reap the digital dividends of the digital economy, we must fully embrace digital transformation. Standing on Sir Arthur's shoulders, I propose to offer some thoughts on a forward-looking development strategy for 2020 and beyond. With due deference to Sir Arthur's contribution, I will briefly revisit his original prescription. I will then recast that strategy with the technological innovation as a key lever in the transformation process through the boundless possibilities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Social economic transformation by invitation and innovation could be of much needed impetus for a region's transformation thrust and to help our societies to experience shared and sustainable prosperity. Why do we need transformation? That is an assumption of this talk. Why do we need transformation? In 1950, Sir Arthur published a seminal scholarly piece, The Industrialization of the British West Indies. He did so in the Journal of Caribbean Economic Review. This article birthed the model that will later become popularly known as industrialization by invitation. Interesting fact, Sir Arthur did not give the strategy this catchy tagline. And that order goes to another distinguished West Indian scholar, the late Lloyd Best. Indeed, the name was intended as an epitome, an intellectual job at the model in best inimitable style. But in any event, it stopped, and the rest is history. As a consequence of the prevailing domestic conditions and constraints, Sir Arthur devised a comprehensive strategy for industrializing Caribbean economies. I know how I like the key aspects of his model. One, a customs union. Ever the regionalist Arthur saw the creation of a customs union as vital for the successful implementation of an industrial policy for the region. Two, export-oriented manufacturing, led in the first instance by foreign investors with a requisite capital and expertise to develop industry, generate employment, and gain access to international markets. The recommendation was for countries to differentiate their products in order to create niche markets that would allow them to compete internationally. Three, an active role for government. Sir Arthur saw government intervention as necessary for correcting market failure and that because of online investment and for creating and enabling business environment for attracting investors. Government's two roles, as outlined by Sir Arthur, were first, establish a development agency to lead the charge in attracting investment, and second, to wield fiscal policy as an instrument by offering fiscal incentives. Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it, in a nutshell. Now you wrote a lot more than that, but that's it in a nutshell. Now fast forward 70 years, how do current conditions compare with when industrialization by invitation was first presented? There's a quick summary. Some of you may be interested. So 1950, Sir Arthur published 20, 20, 70 years later. At that time, we were low income countries. We are now considered middle income, and in some cases, high income countries. Check progress. Small domestic markets. Guess what? Still small domestic markets. High levels of unemployment. Guess what? Still high levels of unemployment. Low labor productivity. Guess what? Low labor productivity. Productivity is the lowest it's been in the last 30 years in this region. Better believe that. Large pool of low skill labor. Today, skills mismatch. So here you have juxtaposed with high unemployment. You still have critical skills throughout it is in some of our countries. And we are still importing labor for certain skills or for certain services because they are not available. Large agriculture sector. Then today, large services sector. Tourism being our dominant sector and its allied services. Then relatively low labor costs. Now relatively high labor costs. So you see the situation. Productivity has been going this way. Labor costs is going that way. You see the conundrum and you see in a minute why all growth is constrained and why it has been constrained for a long period of time. Domestic savings and Dr. Covenant mentioned it. Low levels of domestic savings. Then what do we have now? High level of liquidity. But constraints the access to credit. As we speak in the ECCU, there are deposits that come for total about 21 billion dollars. And yet there has been for a long time a situation of excess liquidity. Which simply means deposits are rising faster than loans and the banks are not finding appropriate opportunities to lend money. Unless you beat up on the banks, which is the favorite pastime of some. And the banks of course at times do deserve some blows. We must accept that too. But not all. Not all. I have to defend the banks as well. The banks are facing high non-performing loans. And that has a drag on credit and access to credit. But what is the fact that we simply do not have a some credit ecosystem in this region? What should happen is savers should be able to find a way, the money should be able to get to investors and borrowers. We do not have a credit bureau. We do not have a partial credit guarantee scheme. We still are struggling with respect to collateral in 2020. Those are some of the obstacles that are impeding our growth. But I run ahead of myself. Let me get back on point. Low levels of domestic expertise. We have today an entrepreneurial class that's emerging. And especially small businesses, many of which are locally owned. And that's a good thing. But there are challenges there because they too are facing the issue of lack of access to credit. They too are facing the issue of long delays on their receivables. Do you think about a small business trying to make ends meet? And they have to wait 60 or 90 or sometimes 180 days to get the money. How are they going to survive? How are they going to survive? Many of them with great ideas and good services are struggling because there is a difficulty where that is concerned. Now in an effective credit system, they ought to be a way for them to be provided with liquidity. Whether that means factor in, for example, where somebody buys the receivables, give them the cash flow so they could continue to do the business. These things are holding us back. And when I speak about the credit bureau, I want you to understand the context for why this is important and why we need to get on with the business. Low levels of debt. Today, high levels of debt. And on top of that, the existential threat of climate change. So evidently, by the way, when I went on that list, I think I only had two correct. How many did you get? How many did you get? One. So we've made some progress over those 70 years. But we have not made as much progress as we ought to. And the last couple of decades have been disappointing. Against this backdrop, I assert that we absolutely need socioeconomic transformation. And to support this assertion further, I now offer you five, six exhibits, a mere sampling of the big problems confronting the Eastern Caribbean currency union. And we'll do this quickly. Exhibit number one, high debt, low growth trap. That red line there is 60%. Most of our countries have been above that and have been above that for well over for almost 20 years. You go back to 2000 when we started, many of the countries were there. St. Lucia is in the light blue. St. Lucia was under, and of course at some point in time, St. Lucia went over 60. The bottom line is that these high levels of debt are creating a drag on the economy. They're weighing us down, holding us back. The Monarchy Council has set a target of 60% by 2030. At this moment, St. Kitts and Nevis has met that target. And Grenada is on course to hit that target, possibly end of this year, and certainly by next year. Now take a look at this. You may not be able to see this. But what this shows you is that not since the 1980s, so remember the target for growth in our region is 5%. That's our target approved by the Monarchy Council, finance ministers, most of whom are prime ministers, 5%. Not since the 1980s have we hit that target when we were averaging 6%. And if you look at the dark blue line, which is ECU, St. Lucia is light blue, you will see that that line has come down and down and down. And it coincides with the loss of preferential access, sugar and bananas. It coincides with countries that are contracting more debt. It coincides with loss of concessional financing as we graduated from low income to middle income. And it also coincides with some fiscal prognopathy. And we have to acknowledge that at times the governments have not been on their best behavior where fiscal matters are concerned. Then we had a global financial crisis. But notice there, if you can see on the screen, that St. Lucia, and this is important, we are in St. Lucia, for the last two decades, the growth in St. Lucia is actually below the average of the ECU. So whereas in the first few years, the first couple decades, St. Lucia was higher than, the light blue is higher than the dark blue, what's what happens there? If you look in the last two decades, it's actually below. In fact, if you look at the number, what you will see is in 2000 to 2009, ECU average 2.7, St. Lucia average 2%. And then in the last decade, ECU average 1.6%, St. Lucia average 1.2%. Some of you may ask, well, why is that? Well, perhaps you can see better than I can. You live here. But there are several factors and I want to mention four. There are other factors, of course, low and declining productivity. Go to the National Productivity Council, you will see the information there. I won't go into that now. Limited fiscal space, which has constrained the size of the government's capital program. A fundamental thing in public finance is this. Director of finance, good evening, I want to acknowledge you. The recurrent expenditure keeps you going, the capital keeps you growing. If your capital is constrained, it fundamentally constrains the growth capacity of the country. It's like you're telling the teachers, all we could do is pay your salaries, but we can't give you chalk to teach. Or we can't give you materials to teach. So all we could manage the recurrent expenditure. I'm not saying this is the case here in St. Lucia. I'm simply giving an example of what happens when all you can do is recurrent expenditure. And I speak from personal experience. I was a financial secretary for 14 years. So I saw that in Grenada. I know that. That's a reality that I lived. Also, in ordinary delays in the completing of major projects, even when there is secured external financing. And the fourth one I'll mention is slow, painfully slow implementation of structural reforms, including legislative reforms to address the issues of access to credit. Those are four reasons, the others, four reasons why you've seen the underperformance in the last 20 years. In the case of the latter, the access to credit, the private sector is hurt. The small businesses are hurt when they do not have that access. Credit is oxygen that keeps these economies going. And as we enter this new decade, there is an urgent need to arrest and reverse this trend. Let's move on to our next exhibit. High unemployment, particularly among our youth. And here you see Grenada and St. Lucia. Grenada is in the yellow, St. Lucia is in the blue. The good news is that unemployment is falling in both countries. In the case of St. Lucia, it's down to, I believe, around 17% thereabouts. If I stand corrected there, I'm just trying to get my note there, but it's been trending down. Grenada is also trending down, but Grenada is higher. And typically, youth unemployment doubles the national average. So if the national average is 15%, youth is 30%. Now, I would love to have put up more of our countries, but here is the thing. Grenada and St. Lucia in Grenada are the only countries that consistently do labour force surveys. St. Lucia does it quarterly, Grenada does it annually. And we are trying to encourage more of our countries to publish what is a very important socioeconomic statistic. So that's all we can offer you at this moment. Undoubtedly, the most dominant socioeconomic challenge of our time is higher unemployment, especially among our youth. The injustice of unemployment is that it deprives willing individuals of the dignity of decent work and the opportunity to fully participate in economic life. Exhibit number three, persistent levels of poverty. And if you notice, poverty has come down in St. Lucia. It was 28.8% in 2006. It was 25% in 2016. And that's based on the CDB poverty assessment that was done. But poverty is still high in our region. We have pockets of poverty that are quite high in some parts of our region, in some of our countries. Next exhibit, the doing business. Of 190 economies run by the World Bank, the ECCU ranking is 121. St. Lucia fares the best of the six ranked member countries. But still, at 93, it's far below our target of being in the top 50. What explains these low rankings? The next exhibit shows you, what does it show you, that the key areas where we have a difficulty are access to credit, access to credit. What's our ranking there? What's our ranking there? 161 out of 190 countries in the world. That is pulling down the ranking. And international investor, who does not know this country or the region. One of the first things that they pick up is this report. They get a sense. So I know some of us have difficulty with some of the methodology in this report. But the truth is that it is a headline indicator, often relied on by foreign investors. We have to address this issue. Next one, register in a property. 107, 104, based on the last ranking. And then the other one is resolving insolvency. So I just pointed out three areas. While we had addressed these three areas, the ranking would significantly improve. And we would have a fighting chance of breaking into the top 50. But here's the thing, these are relative rankings. And while we take our sweet time to implement reforms, the rest of the role is taking care of business. They are not waiting on us. So we have to be very careful about that. Next exhibit, crime. High levels of crime. There you see average homicide rates for 100,000 over the last 17 years. And you will see where we are as a region. 14.8 in the region compared to North America 5.5 or compared to the rest of the world 6.3. St. Lucia is at 22. Jamaica is at 46.8. Grenada 9.5. Barbados 9.4. I don't need to say much more about crime. I think we all recognize it is a major issue. Next exhibit, climate change. I think we all recognize today that climate change poses an existential threat to our region. In fact, the most recent survey by the United Nations Environmental Program declares that emissions need to be cut, we know, by to 1.5 degrees. At the moment based on trend, we are looking at about 3.2 degrees. The fact of the matter is if we continue on that trend, many of our countries, or at least parts thereof, will be underwater well before 2100. And some of you say, well, I wouldn't be wrong at that time. But don't be so cynical. How many of you remember Y2K? Y2K? Anybody remembers? Well, that was 20 years ago. So long ago. The point is time quickly. We've entered a new decade and before you know it, we'll be at 2030. And then these things will begin to bite. We have to address this issue of climate change. So confronted with the weight of this evidence, these exhibits which you have just seen, I wish to believe that we all recognize that climate change formation is essential, and we must join hands to make that happen in our region. Industrialization by Invitation 70 years on. The introduction of citizenship by investment programs has become the second generation of our Regent Invitations Strategy at our country's grapple with the challenge of securing foreign investment of revenue to address rising development needs. Since 1984, starting in St. Kitts and Nevis, followed by the Commonwealth of Dominica, and more recently, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and St. Lucia, our industrialization model has been dominated by CBI. In a sense, CBI has become the second generation of IBM. So whereas before it was come and we gave you incentives, pay a fee and we gave you citizenship or a passport. Now I recognize this is a controversial issue for some. Deep, strong philosophical views among many, but at the end of the day, countries have their sovereign right to exercise. Today, the CBI is a dominant vehicle for foreign direct investment in our countries. Indeed, over the past 10 years, CBI has contributed more than $3.6 billion to the ECCU, and here you can see back $3.9 billion, and if you look there, you will see what the countries are doing. So if you look for St. Lucia, you will see that St. Lucia came in on average over the last three years at about $31.1 million. But you look for example at St. Kitts, and you will see that it came in at $192.3 million. Of course St. Lucia, St. Kitts has the oldest and largest CBI program. Significant resources, and that is only what is accounted for in the government coffers, because many of them as you know have real estate components, and the real estate component does not go to the Treasury. They invest in an approved project, whether that is a hotel, a manufacturing plant, and a processing plant, whatever that is approved. So the point is CBI has brought in significant resources. These policies are used for several purposes, including hotels, infrastructure, social programs, and in some cases even salaries. The program has delivered considerable benefits to our countries. You look at the roads for example in St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Kitts in particular, and there's no question that CBI has helped. And in the case of Dominica, CBI has been a lifeline for Dominica in the aftermath of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. That said, CBI programs are accompanied by significant risk, and their future is far from certain. CBI programs like the predecessors, the fiscal incentives have been subjected to strong competitive pressures. Fees have been slashed as jurisdictions compete to attract foreign investors leading terrorists to the bottom. The programs have also become under increased scrutiny in light of news reports with allegations of corruption and abuse. So what can the ECC do to mitigate these risks, given the importance of these programs in terms of foreign exchange, government revenue, and economic activity? I return to that in the next section, which is my last section. Transformation by Innovation. The next 70 years in the concluding paragraph of the 1950 paper, Sir Arthur made an astute observation that some key is needed to open the door behind which the dynamic energies of the Westinian people are at present confined. And of course, I submit to you that innovation made possible by the rapidly unfolding Fourth Industrial Revolution could be that key, which unlocks a region's growth potential. In this regard, I welcome Sir Lucia's plans to develop an innovation policy as part of his broader agenda for a decade of research and innovation, as announced recently. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, whose collection of innovations has been characterized by the world economic forum as a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds impacting all disciplines, economies, and industry. Now, the World Economic Forum and McKinsey have collaborated on a lighthouse project which documents the applications of technology in firms and the results and the findings have been impressive. And so the question is, how can we build lighthouses in the ECU? Sir Lucia and the countries of the ECU, how can we build lighthouses using the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies? How can we create lighthouses here and change our trajectory and transform our economies and our situation? That transformation requires fundamental changes, disruption of the whole way of doing things across sectors, with a public sector, agriculture, manufacturing, and of course tourism. And by the way, the country to popular belief service model did not marginalize the agriculture sector. The sector remains vital for ensuring our region's food security. And I've been on record as saying that my hope would be that as Guyana explodes its new farm riches, we would find a way at the regional level to pursue a national, a regional food security program that assures us of food. We've seen experiences in the last few years, including last day with the hurricane. One hurricane and in one week, supermarkets, no food, ships can't come in. One week, we have to address that issue. And so food security is something that we must not overlook. And technology can help with that. That's the point. So when we talk about technology and digital transformation, we're not leaving our culture behind. A guy who is fishing ought to be able to fish, use his smartphone and take a picture of the fish while still on the ocean, have that scent uploaded and sent so that by the time he reaches the shore, that is already sold and the money is in his account. That is the appropriate use of technology for the fishermen. So my point is that technology can enable all sectors. So this nonsense narrative that we some are leaving our culture behind, that's not true. That's a nonsense narrative. Technology can enable all sectors, all sectors to be transformed and to new business models to emerge if we are ready to embrace its potential. What we have found and the research from ECCB shows is that if we implemented these reforms, our economic trajectory will increase. Right now, we're averaging around 3.3%, 3.4%. If we implemented these reforms, including the credit bureau, including the partial credit guarantee scheme, including the doing business things that I talked about, including some of the things we have to do in our labour markets, and I'm going to talk about a few others in a moment, we can immediately, in short order I should say, not immediately, short order raise our trajectory to almost 5%. So there are things that we can do. We don't control the global economy. We can't control what will go on in the U.S. But we can certainly control our response to the opportunities before us, and we have to do that. So with this imperative in mind, I want to finish this talk by offering some thoughts on the way forward. Here are some of our views. Governance, political governance. Yes, I must talk about that. Because the importance of governance for sustained development cannot be overestimated. The necessity for the implementation of reforms is often determined by political economy considerations. I'm a lowly economist, but at least that I do understand, having worked in the public service for a long time as financial secretary, and of course now as governor of the central bank. On this complicated issue, I wish to make one observation. Our current electoral model, which results in a winner-take-all outcome, is not in the best interest of our small countries. Wow, it seems I've touched a note there. It has the unintended effect of alienating large segments of the population. This is a luxury we can ill afford as we seek to raise productivity and shared prosperity. Furthermore, this electoral model does not provide incentives for bipartisan approaches to resolving our most intractable problems. We have situations where politicians on either side of the aisle telling you, yes, they believe and support a particular policy, but they cannot publicly go and take that position, because they'll be lynched by their supporters. It's a perverse arrangement that we are still using constitutional and international masters. It's an indictment, grave indictment on all of us. And indeed, constitutional reform is necessary. Now I am well cognizant of the fact that three countries in our neighborhood in the ECU have tried and failed, including two with overwhelming majorities and mandates. But that shouldn't discourage us. That simply makes the point that constitutional reform is not possible unless there's a bipartisan approach. So if we want it, we are going to have to come together to do it. Remember what I said about all of the collective energies of our people. Half the population cannot be outside, wanting and waiting and mourning and groaning, because somehow they feel marginalized. This is a systemic problem. I'm not here to point fingers at any particular party. The truth is that that is a system handed down to us that we must change for benefit going forward. In the meantime, while we struggle and development is a struggle to get to constitutional reform, we could at least strengthen our social partnership framework. That is the coming together of government, opposition, business, labor, civil society, churches, including youth, of course. And in some countries, Jamaica, Grenada, Barbados, they have helped to usher through or push through very key reforms and to manage political considerations. And I'm a strong believer in the need for a strong social partnership. Second under governance is fiscal governance. Establish a fiscal resilience framework inclusive of the enactment of fiscal responsibility legislation. This includes an independent watchdog that reports to parliament on an annual basis on the performance of governments. This is critical. Then I make no apologies for this. I serve as a financial secretary and I am unapologetic about the need for that. And I'm pleased that one of the things we did before I left my office in Grenada was to get fiscal responsibility legislation through. And so that the frock fiscal responsibility oversight committee now fires annual reports to parliament. That is one of the main reasons why Grenada has stayed on track even after the IMF program. Without that, it could easily have gone up the rails again. So I highly recommend fiscal responsibility legislation. Now there are those who argue that will constrain them, handcuff them. No government wants to be constrained. They want the flexibility. But I say to you, this is not to constrain you. This is to empower you to manage more effectively, especially in times of downturn. Because what resilience framework allows is for a government to pursue conquer cyclical fiscal policy. A big with simply means when you can only spend, we discovered, I discovered, I enjoyed went through that financial crisis. Many of including Grenada included most of them at a time when the country should have been increasing expenditure to question the effect on the population. They were cutting expenditure and they were not cutting expenditure because the government wicked. They were cutting expenditure because they simply had no fiscal space. They were maxed out where credit was concerned. So you could not go and continue to borrow to be able to make the expenditure. So this actually is a mechanism to help us better manage in times of downturn. And I strongly, strongly encourage that. I'm pleased to see in St. Lucia that both of the major parties in the manifestos have promised fiscal responsibility legislation. So at least the press will back the president's support on that. Let us see what unfolds. Next, CBI reforms. CBI reforms, in our view, are regionally required respect of standard setting pricing. So the ECB advocates that we have a common standard for diligence. If one country denies an application, another country ought not to approve that application in a single space. So we have to have common standards crucial, crucial. We believe also that these funds should be used for building resilient infrastructure, investing in the productive sectors which are starved, including agriculture, and paying down debt. We believe those are, we definitely are not recommending their use for recurrent expenditures such as salaries. And then fiscal incentives reform. And here we simply say increase transparency by publishing all concessions granted to investors. Secondly, do less tax holidays and more accumulated depreciation allowance, which simply means that you get the credit when you actually make the investment because what it does, it holds the investor accountable because what happens is that many times, and I've been there, many times they promise you jobs and levels of investment and they do not deliver. So our position is it is there for you when you make the investment. But these broad 10, 20 years holiday, tying up a set of things and not producing anything, we have to discontinue that. And then of course, stronger accountability, better monitoring of actual implementation of concessions. You will be shocked, shocked, not just here, all over the region when you see what was promised and actually what was delivered. And we really have to hold people accountable for that. We want people to come, but we also expect them to deliver. And we have to hold them accountable. Let me move on as I look to wind up. Skills, development and labor market reforms. Curriculum reform. And I want to hail the teachers in the house, the lecturers. Give them a round of applause. They work hard. They typically are underpaid. And I make no comment about solution teachers. I don't know what their salaries are. But teachers all over the world are typically underpaid. My mom was a master teacher school principal. I have a lot of respect for teachers. And of course, the impolite is herself highly accomplished educator. There must be a deliberate shift from subjects to skills, from subjects to skills. What is the point of getting 20 subjects and you can't find a job? And I'll bet I'll say you can't create your own job. And what is it and how it is that on some days you're looking for a good plumber and you can't find one. But we churn in all these people bragging rights. The boy bright, the girl bright. We got to change that. The future of jobs report makes clear that the future jobs are in areas such as data scientists, robotics, innovation specialists, social media specialists, digital transformation specialists, including media. What are you doing? Digital media in a good spot. You're in a good spot. We need more of that. And so we want to encourage the shift to STEM. In that respect, mathematics is very important. What you're teaching and what we need to do is make sure that our best math teachers are used across the country. Technology allows us to do that. I can benefit from you. All students can be brought under you and your tutelage and can get their instruction rather than have poor results because we have teachers who are not with it in terms of the technology and we've seen very poor grades in terms of our performances. So I think we could do better there. I am advised that with less than 12 months of training in coding, somebody can be employed and get $2,000 a month. That's a decent paying job in the ECU. That's more than double the average household income. It is around 2,500 in most of our countries. So what's my point? We need to introduce coding in our primary schools. Primary schools. We also need to encourage coding academies. That's where the demand is. That's where good paying jobs are. Three, people and business facilitation. And if you're watching or watching, I'm on number three. I'm going to five. Touch your neighbor and say, wake up. He's finishing soon. So the third one is people and business facilitation. 21st century government. It is imperative now that governments take the lead in delivering e-government services. It will free up the public sector, save money, and reduce the frustration that many citizens feel when dealing with government on a day-to-day basis. It will also reduce allegations of any suggestions of corruption where people feel that hands have to be greased and encouraged for them to get service. You are a citizen. You are entitled to a service. You are not supposed to be paying for a family to do your favor. That's your entitlement. Unfortunately, because of our bureaucracy, many times you have to know somebody to, you know, that creates a burden, a tax of sorts on the citizen. And therefore, government has to do a lot more where that is concerned. But more important than that, if we want to build out a digital economy in this region, we have to build digital trust. And a key ingredient to do that is the faster adoption of government, by government, of e-government services. So I want to encourage our governments where that is concerned. Digital financial services. Now, many of you have heard of our plan at the ECCB to launch the digital Eastern Caribbean dollar later this year. That we believe is fundamental the digitalization of our currency as we move towards a digital economy. Where are we now? So for the last year, since March, we have been a development and testing phase. We are nearing the end of that. Thereafter, we are going to go into a period of public education and training our pilot partners. And then we plan to launch the digital dollar in June of this year. So far in St. Lucia, some of our partners who have come on board are Bank of St. Lucia, First National, First Caribbean, St. Lucia Cooperative Credit Union, and Monropo Credit Union. I believe others are also indicated in interest. So I want you to stay tuned. How will it work? Simply put, we will give you an app which you download. You go to the App Store, the Google Play Store, you download it, DXDD, Caribbean. It will then link to an account if you have an account with a Bank of Credit Union. That's your first option. If you don't have an account, you can use physical cash and bring in and switch to digital cash. So we have two offerings. The registered model for those who are already in the system, and the value-based model for those who do not have an account. The only difference is that those with the registered model will have higher thresholds or will be able to do a lot more transaction in terms of volume because they are already known by the bank. So in terms of anti-money laundering and combating financial terrorism safeguards, those are already in place because you're already on board. With the lower threshold, we will still have to have some safeguards. So we will put a limit on what the size of the transaction can be on a monthly basis. So you can do any number but within an envelope that we provide. So the first thing you download and you connect. And then after that, you scan and pay using your smart device. And thirdly, you will get a confirmation of payment, and that happens within seconds. All value proposition is to deliver the fastest, cheapest, safest payment option in our region. Now, there still will be other options available. So we're not saying other payment channels cannot be used, but you will get to decide which ones you want to use and for what purpose. Our hope is that in doing this, among other things, we'll reduce our use of physical cash and checks. But most importantly, we speed up payments because I've made the point, we pay too much for payment services in this region. If you pay in 3% for a service, that's too much. If you pay in 5%, that's too much. And then sometimes it takes too long. You're doing a check or you're doing this and it takes in days. Sometimes it should be T plus 1, sometimes that doesn't happen. So we are delivering something that we believe will touch every person, including the poorest of the poor, including the poorest of the poor. And that is something that we are working assiduously to deliver. Before I move up this point, I do want to make, I do need to say that digital governance is key. So as we build our digital economy, we have to be cognizant of risk, such as cyber security and a need for cyber resilience. We have to be conscious of things like data protection. So in this regard, I welcome what ECTAIL is doing in respect of a data protection law across the currency union, certainly the five ECTAIL member countries, of which St. Lucia is of course a member. ECTAIL is here to be able to give that protection to you, to our consumers. So we are well, we are working on that. And you will hear later on this day of a big project called digital transformation funded by the World Bank with our member countries. ECTAIL is coordinating that project in collaboration with OECS commission, CTU. And I see my colleague, Emron Williams, a national of St. Lucia with Emron. Right. Who is leading the charge on that project for us at the bank? We're taking young people and we're putting them to work on big projects because we believe in the potential of our youth. Four, regional ANC transport. I almost want to skip that one because where do I start and where do I end? Well, let me say this very briefly, very briefly. I believe regional air transport, e-transport are regional public goods. What does that mean? In my humble estimation, some public support is required but must be delivered in a fully transparent and highly accountable performance framework. The basic elements are one, a negotiated basic route network which serves as a bridge to connect to our people, basic network. Two, an agreement on the cross subsidy of that network because some routes are profitable and some are not. And three, a commitment by governments for certain, for payments, fees for service for certain non-profitable routes. That's the core of the model that we need. And finally, a commercial disposition on matters such as procurement, HR, and finance. If we could adopt these four principles, we could solve this problem in the region. Similarly, so that's all I'm going to say. I know. Really? Yes. Time is out. We also need to get a fast ferry service. We are working on that but it's been proven difficult. The initial estimate for the service is the cost of the initial upfront cost is about 16.5 million US dollars for a ferry that would do, I think, about 400 people with 40 cars. But the issue is making that investment so that the governments are not paying or having to pay recurring costs because you realize what's happening with Lyat right now. They constrain so we don't want to put anything before them where they have to find money that they don't have. So we're still trying to figure that out. And then we have to work on things like how you move from border to border. In other words, if you drove from St. Lucia to St. Vincent with your car, customs, they can't charge you import duties. These things have to be worked out. But for this business community, we absolutely need that fast ferry service for trade. So it's something that we are committed to continuing to pursue. Finally, resilience building. Give more vulnerabilities. We have to invest in our resilience. And that is not a cheap undertaking. We believe that the resilience that the CBI proceeds should be used for building resilience and we also need to use climate funds which have been promised under the Paris Treaty but which have not yet appeared to assist us in that regard. However, one area where we really feel that we could make a move real fast is in the area of renewables. And so what you will see is that at the moment, we are only doing about 8 percent of our electricity from renewables. Solar PV, hydro in particular. Only 8 percent. Now the sun is God given. That's a natural gift that we have. And so we believe that the region needs to be a lot more ambitious and aggressive in adopting renewables in its energy mix. But this is very important for carbon footprint, but that's not the main reason as important as that is. It is to lower the cost of energy for our people and for our business community. Because in many of our countries, St. Lucia, the cost here is about 30, almost 40 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour. Therefore, that presents a real challenge for our small hotels, our businesses, for our households. You look at what is spending every year in terms of important oil, fuel. If you can reduce that cost, you can release those resources to do something as an economy. Law enforcement, education, healthcare and so on. So that is what we want to encourage. Ladies and gentlemen, here ends the outline of the technology-enabled strategy 2.0 for 2020 and beyond. It is broad in scope because our development challenges are great and diverse, and yet it is far from exhaustive. And it is ambitious because our development challenges are formidable. As I close, permit me to switch disciplines for a moment to share a sobering tourism from St. Derek Wildcott's 1993 play, The Odyssey. And I quote, The future happens no matter how much we scream. And of course, the reality today is that we live in a digital world, and there can be no transformation without digital disruption. We cannot stop the tsunami of technological change, but we can stop the realization of our dreams if we are stuck in time and slow in our embrace of digital transformation. Do we have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? What's it? What's the mindset? Let us proceed with knowness and boldness to secure our place in the global economy for our children and grandchildren. Mesa Arthur's legacy continued to inspire us to pursue excellence for Caribbean people and civilization. I thank you. Inequality is a global challenge, and in a sense, a lot of what we see now in terms of some of the inward-looking policies of our advanced economies is really a pushback on globalization. But I look at how technology is also empowering us. Yesterday, we had a very lively discussion on Airbnb and its emergence in St. Lucia. We told that there are about 3,000 rooms here now, and it's growing. And there are implications, some positive, some negative, which we need to consider. It's impact on housing and so on. But the reality is that more and more of our people are now in a position to benefit from the gig economy by being able to put rooms, homes, up for rent via that medium. My point is that technology can enable more opportunity. And I think the key for us is how we allow it to be used to give more access to more of our people. I know our hotelier friends have concerns, and those are also genuine concerns. They've made big investments. But the reality is that that is a simple example of how more and more people can benefit. You look at Uber and how it has revolutionized the taxi industry. I remember being in the U.S. and sometimes you can't get a taxi. You can't get a taxi. I would call. They see an overseas number and they refuse to take the call. They don't know the number or they think it's somebody calling to sell them something. I call center. Now with Uber, in minutes, you track it. And guess what? I don't need to have cash. That's the point. So I look at it. I always have a half full view. I take an optimistic view. I recognize challenges. But the truth about it, if you think about our smartphones, you know William Blake makes the point. What is now taken for granted was once only imagined. Think about the smartphone now. And what that has done. And tell me which of us want to hand back our smartphone and go back with it. No. So let us embrace the opportunity. Public policy must work to make sure that we are shared prosperity. And that's where we have to put our heads together to make sure more and more people benefit. The issue of growing the economy and government finances. In our country, for example, our middle class has been shrinking. And they're the ones paying the taxes. What would be your solution to counteract this? On the question of the middle class, that's a real challenge. And my view is that increasingly, we have to make sure that we target middle class in terms of how we. So again, I go back to the issue of access to credit. And I really feel, in a lot of cases with these small businesses, if we are able to get the credit system right, we will help them out. And what most politicians know, but sometimes forget, is that every other person they see wants some money to do something. In a lot of cases, we need to have it. What you want is a system that allows that opportunity. So I actually believe that that is one of the things that we have to do for the middle class. The other area goes back to the issue of skills and employment. Because when you look at property in a number of our countries, the number one reason for property now is actually not education anymore, you know, unemployment. And when you go back to unemployment, it is a lack of critical skills. So people are, we put traditional degrees for things that we don't need. I mean, it's amazing. No disrespect intended to management degrees, but among the management degrees that we have, and we have a serious management problems in this region. What does that tell you? And I'm not knocking anybody in the point. Do you think that Arthur's socio-economic principles have been acknowledged as much as they should be? If so, why? If not so, why? I think they have been acknowledged. I mean, the fact that 70 years on, we're still talking about Arthur, not just here in St. Lucia, but around the world. You cannot go to a development economics class and not talk about Arthur. His legacy is enduring. Now, like in any discipline, it evolves. So Arthur was a pioneer. He led the way. But we're supposed to develop what he gave us. And so my view is that his work is acknowledged. There have been debates about criticisms. The two biggest criticisms of Arthur is one, the over reliance on foreigners and the overly generous fiscal incentives. That's the two major criticisms of the model. And you hear that still. But I unbalance feel that he has been recognized. What I want to make sure that our young people do not forget him. And that is why what you are doing this week and what you do every year in terms of the Nobel laureate festival is important. Because you can grow up with a generation who don't know who Arthur is. And we must not make that, let that happen. This is why we have to do these things and perpetuate his memory. There was an old lady. Her name was Sepulo. She never went to secondary school. I don't think she went to primary school. She could barely read and write. And she used to call us young fellows and say, Mamae, I'll translate for you. The lady told us, young lads, and she used to say, all the land God has already been made. And you can make more land. To be careful, we don't sell the land, especially those our parents and grandparents left for us. And gone by Motokan, but see this fence. Or lease it for 99 years for one dollar. And talk, talk, just say all we have is seawater and sand and some land. These little islands are small islands. I want you to speak to the listing of land, some of our best lands for 99 years for foreign investors. And these lands probably will never come back to us. We the people in this region. And more importantly, these lands are listed without research, research in form, statistics, especially in a golden population for them young people. Where are you going to build their houses? Where are we going to dispose our garbage? It's schizophrenic development. You know, it's like one more in Creole. Instead of doing research, bring the technocrats together. Where are we going to plan? Even the communists, you know, slavery was well planned. That's why we stayed there long, so long. And even after slavery, there was the indentured period. The fellas had a plan. These days, it's too much to know anywhere. A fella come in his briefcase, and he say he want that piece of land and sometimes the best lands. It's like a man come in your house and say, I want your bed and your bedroom. And we just give it to them. Speak to that, my friend. First of all, thank you for the lecture and the education. My partner is only two beggars and Sakitan parlay lot. So I care for you more than that. Unfortunately, grandparents. It is a serious issue. My thing is that we have to preserve some land for people. So whatever we do, we have to make a decision about that. We must be able to preserve some land for people. So there's a tension there, because you do want to bring foreign direct investors in to make some of the big investments, but you certainly don't want to give away all your primal lands. And you kind of have to decide that a country, what is your carrying capacity, you decide on what you will do and what you won't do and have clarity about that, which is what you talk about with the plan and the power of the plan. Once you do that, it goes back to the comment I made about holding them accountable. Because what I detest, what I have a heart is a situation where these lands are tied up for a long time. They're not delivering anything remotely close to what was promised. And we can't access them. That's a problem. And we have to be in a position to give people shorter time horizons to recover those investments and to be able to return the land. But in many cases, it is a tension. And I feel that you have to work out what you will do and what you won't do. So this area we prefer to do that. This area we're not prepared to touch. And you live with that. That's a trade off you make for the patrimony. And you decide that is what you're going to do. People respect you when you take a stand. They may not agree with you. They might not like the position, but they respect you. That's all I can say on that particular one at this time. You emphasize the importance of the middle class, digital revolution. You've won employment. You've won employment. What is the bounds of vision? Or what does the bounds see as the way forward for entrepreneurship? Startups in general. So we do a couple of things. First of all, we believe that the partial credit guarantee scheme, which is coming online this year, is intended to make credit available to small businesses. So young people involved, whether they're in cultural services, in our culture, during tourism, potentially can have some benefit. The way the guarantee works is simple. A financial institution, your bank credit union, once they are prepared to transact with the guarantee corporation, the guarantee corporation will guarantee 75% of the loan. So if the loan is 100,000, they guarantee up to 75,000, which means that what they stand to lose is 25,000. What that does is that it incentivizes the institution to actually make the loan. In many cases right now, there are people on the periphery either they don't have a track record, they have no collateral, so they can't get credit. What that guarantee will do is give them a chance to actually get credit. And of course, you're not doing it for people to default, but in the event of a default, the financial institution will have results to the guarantee. So that's one thing that ECCB is actually pushing. The board is in place, the team is in place, and I said it should be coming out this year. Secondly, we actually have been doing a lot of work with financial. Because what we find is that, you know, the global survey that was done by standard and poor with George Washington University, only one in three people understand personal finance. In the Caribbean, that figure is even higher. So we really have to educate people about money management. Again, I go back to what we're teaching. You've got to come out of school knowing how to manage money. You have people with PhDs who can balance a checkbook. You know, so that presents issues. And when it presents issues in the workplace, then you see unethical behavior step in because people are under financial stress and duress, and they started to do things that they ought not to do, or they stressed out so the productivity drops. That's a real issue. The beauty of technology is that we can fix that now with apps and games. We can teach financial literacy. And by the way, you really need to teach that because if you give somebody a smartphone and they go on Amazon and they don't have any money management, God help us. You know what's going to happen there. The other thing that we do is that we actually, every year, we do two scholarships. I mentioned that where we actually support two of our OECS students in the skills area. And again, what we're trying to do is to encourage more and more skills. The skills that we need, the STEM skills. So the bank is, those are some of the things that top of mind I can point to. But obviously, more needs to be done to support youth and to support the middle class in that sense. A quick point on your guarantee, the intervention. We've been there already. Yes. The problem is not the money. Yes. The problem is the approval processes. Yes. And the understanding by the people with the power to make that load happen. Yes. Yeah. There's too much frustration on the part of the entrepreneur. There's not the hand holding that's necessary. And a number of things that usually end up with these schemes disappearing because of the frustrations. So I'm just hoping that you have that kind of, well, the new approach to the approval systems and the support that the entrepreneur must have to make that succeed. It's true. The load is guaranteed, but people are still hesitant because they don't understand the concept of a true definition. Right. Yeah. Thanks for that. And you write the history and it is mixed. We are aware of some of the challenges. We kind of looked at global experience, but we have to make it happen. And your point, your cautionary tale is appropriate. Originally, as you said, and whenever we talk about South, a lot of people focus on his economics descriptions. And in fact, his prescription for the development of those islands was not economic, but political. In 1965, in his agony of the eight, when the federation broke up, the little eight called for federation, guarantee good investment, rule of law, et cetera. And he said, if each island goes off on its own, these people will suffer. In 1965, I want to ask you whether you don't think that prescription is still applicable or the political union of those islands in terms of the development? Well, politics is the art of the possible. And I'm not a politician, but my own view is that there are some fundamental regional public goods that we need to deliver to connect people. We have to connect people. So rather than simply say, well, political union, which in my assessment, there's no appetite in the marketplace for that at the moment. But we can take steps to deepen the integration. We've got to fix ANC transport. We have to have a single ICT space. We have a single bank and space, single law, single regulator. We have a single security space, single law, single regulator. We do not have that insurance in insurance yet. And pension funds, we need to do that. But in ICT, we have to do that. So increasingly, you make it easier and easier for people to travel, more and more people to people contact. And that in itself, I think, will get us closer and closer to where we have to be. At the end of the day, it will happen because people demand that it happen. But at the moment, there are too many obstacles for the people integration, goods services, business and so on. So I would focus on that right now. At the banking system level, the banks are coming together, shared services. We had talked years ago, so drive my predecessor, God bless him, a blessed memory, great man. He was pushing to get the banks to come together. We managed to get a couple of them. There was some resistance. My approach is fundamentally, I believe in consolidation, but at this moment, shared services. So for example, the 12 indigenous banks that we have, we've come together and we are pursuing a risk and compliance service. Just like what Scotia had, which was the most profitable bank before it exited, come together, centralized and spread the cost across all of its 1920 jurisdiction. We need to do that for 12 banks. So I'm taking a practical approach to it, but I've not lost my sight of the price. I still keep my eyes on the big price. Thank you. I just want to plug in, please, no sharing of the bank. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Good night, everybody. Governor, I must say that this is one of the most intriguing lectures that I have attended, the Swathe Lewis lectures. And it's very in tune with what is going on. So we were definitely able to relate, at least I was definitely able to relate to everything. I like the point that you made where you referred to our ease of doing business and you highlighted what is bringing us down. I think that is critical. I don't know how much we pay attention to it. The central bank is already doing their part with regard to the credit bureau, which is coming on stream. However, from a national standpoint, we need to do our part. And Sanusha, unfortunately, has the worst foreclosure legislation, I believe, in our region. And if that legislation remains the same, then that point that you highlighted about getting credit, the ease of getting credit, will not improve in a hurry. And that will continue to frustrate our small businesses, our personal, the individuals, everybody will be affected. So I like the way that you made the correlation. And I hope that our persons inside of here who have control over this area can see how Sanusha can benefit if we address this part. Thank you for that. And in the last three days, while we were here, well, four days, we did share that with Cabinet, the opposition leader and his team, banks, of course, civil society. So we've been trying to get everybody on the same page in terms of the message and the issue and try to get a comment together and meeting up the minds on the need to do this for Sanusha. And by the way, Sanusha accounts for 25 percent of the ECU economy. So if Sanusha grows, that means the ECU grows even faster. So I am rooting for Sanusha as I'm rooting for the ECU. We need to make that happen. Thank you very much. Thank you, Governor, for a very stimulating lecture. I don't know if I should call it a lecture or a speech, but it's a hybrid of both. I want to ask you, what are the views of the central bank on foreign direct investment? And the reason why I'm asking this question, it is because I'm seeing more and more from a Sanusha, I'm talking purely from a Sanusha perspective. I'm seeing more and more institutions like the NIC, National Insurance, and National Insurance in particular, but earlier on a local bank was victimized by so-called foreign investors coming in and borrowing the domestic savings of the country. And that was before your watch. And one of the banks almost floundered by a substantial defecation in this loan portfolio on account of this. The point I'm making should not foreign direct investment be what it is always intended to be. Overseas funds coming in through investors to stimulate economy provide employment and training for local nationals. This is not happening. What is your view on this modern application of foreign direct investment? That's the first one. But the second one just put which I would like to respond to the lady there and the question of the slowness of foreclosures. This is a fault of the judiciary, the fault of our courts. Sanusha subscribes to what is called the Hypothecary of De Geuchan, which came into being as a result of the Treaty of Paris of 1840 where the citizen was to be protected against himself. Don't forget you had the English taking over from the French and the French citizens remaining in the country. That right, we have enjoyed it in perpetuity. Why should we lose it? If a bank make a mistake or they were reckless in lending, why should they be able to come and just seize my property without I having the right of redress? We do not follow the rule of the English law of property. We follow the Hypothecary of De Geuchan and as a solution national, I will protest any change to the Hypothecary of De Geuchan. Well, I think the last one is spoken for. There is nothing I can add to that. That was a declaration of intent. What I will say is that on the first issue, the bank has assessed the risk. I mean, I think the thing about it is that banks have to loan money. They have to do so prudently because they have deposited funds. And a fine investor should bring some money, I agree, but I don't necessarily feel that they have to bring all of the money. Because they look at the banking system, they see excess liquidity. The banks also want to make a loan in the business of doing that. So ideally, it should be a combination. I think I would have a problem if you come with no money and you borrow all of the money local. Right? But if you come with a combination, you say, well, I bring 10 million, I borrow 5 million, that's not necessarily a bad thing. And I mean, if you're making the investment here, which is what you're doing, that investment is going to stay here. I could see that happening. So I think it's just making sure that the investor who comes has some skin in the game, an appropriate level of skin in the game, which means an appropriate level of exposure, so that they're not zero risk almost, and that the bank or local institution is fully exposed. But I think we have to allow. And capital is global now. So it's difficult to ring friends in that way and say, well, this is solution money, don't touch it. You have to come with your American money. So I would be cautious about saying they can't find that balance. And at the end of the day, it is still up to the institution to do a proper risk assessment when they're making that credit decision. That is on the institution. I will only say, I promise I won't go back on it, but I will only send the last one. I discovered in one of my trips here, visits, that while we are protecting people, especially the primary residents, the home, I discovered there was an individual who was owned the bank for 15 years, refused to pay and was merely adding on to the home. How do you explain that? And the thing that worries me about that is that it might be your money or my money that they borrowed. And when I go, I expect to get my money back, as do you. I don't think the banks are always and fully responsible. I think it's usually a combination. Have banks made bad loans? Yes. But it's also something about bad pay. They're absolutely, I know that. There's a difference between can pay and bad pay. And that case I just shared with you was bad pay. That's the problem. So we have to make sure we don't incentivize that bad behavior. But that's problematic. I'm about to ask you. But a lot of what you said, in fact, I'm happy you started off by kind of muttering under your breath that the prime minister's, most of them are ministers of finance. You didn't dwell on that too much. But really, this question speaks to political will and political competence, because many of the things you spoke about to me at the heart of it, the conditioned precedent is political will and political competence, changing the electoral models so that you have proportional representation, changing the constitution so that you have a constitution that is modern and that is reflective of the times in which we live, fiscal responsibility, public sector transformation, resilience, yet we speak of resilience, yet we allow development or we pursue a development model that is anathema to the sort of resilience that we're trying to build. To me, the common factor in all of this is either political incompetence or political unwillingness to do the things that need to be done. So given the very sensible, practical, unnecessary prescriptions that you've given to us today, and I thank you because it really was enlightening, how do we deal with this huge elephant in the room, which in political class that is resistant to change and that wants to protect its status quo, because that is the most comfortably represented. The demand has to come from the people. Politicians respond to that. That's their ultimate bosses. So when I push for fiscal responsibility legislation, the pushback I get from some quarters is, okay, one is tying my hands, but the second issue is that any government can go to parliament and change it. Now, by the end, in 2011, I call in Grenier for that to be put in the constitution. Of course, some people laughed at me and said, well, that's mission impossible. Some people empathize with me but say, well, I don't see that happening. What we got in there was in law in 2015. You don't always get what you want and when you want it. But we made an important step. Now, my response to those who say, but any government can go and changes is that if the people are sufficiently sensitized about what this means, then they are going to be the ultimate guardian and custodian of that law. You know, in Germany, a government cannot go and be fiscally reckless because deep in the psyche of the German people, they understand after the difficulties in 1930s with stark inflation, they understood and still understand that governments must always keep their fiscal house in order. So the debate in Germany is more about how much are the so-plus to spend, which is a good problem to have. But what they will not allow any government to do is to be reckless and just spend the money. In our region, what we hear sometimes, and I'm being frank, real people release us. People say, well, boy, I hear your governor, but what do you want me to do? Leave the money in the treasury for the opposition to come and spend it when they get in? But I'm saying the way we deal with that is that people have to embrace that and understand if that doesn't happen, I'm going to pay more taxes. I'm not going to get protected in a downturn because my government will have no space to respond. To me, that is something our people will have to deal with. It will be great if there's a night leadership and I encourage that. Some of our governments have said to me they are going to do it, so I'm going to obviously continue to press. But I feel that incentive also needs to come from the populace to understand if it is in a long-term benefit to have such a regime in place. So that's all I understand that for now. Thank you very much for an excellent performance. I just wanted to come in the question of the foreign direct investment. At the time that's the offer that is industrialization of Bridge West Indies, the question of savings was low. There's a 5% saving rate at the time and he did say that if you go up to 15, you're right. Things have changed and in fact our savings rate has gone up. Having gone up, you have the capital. So perhaps what we need to do is get our local people to give them the same incentives that you give to the foreigners and you do just like it was familiar with what they call the development areas in Britain at the time and shift it locally rather than bringing in the foreign investors. That's one. Second one is that when you look at Sa'afah's writings, people just take them in parts and now go through the whole thing. For example, the question of knowledge is not a question of just inviting people, but the question of inviting people and training them over time. And the countries in the world actually have used Sa'afah's model and Japan is one and China is the other, particularly in the case of Japan where the knowledge, the question of the knowledge base has been doing and then they utilize it and modified it, especially, for example, in the automobile. So I just wanted to make those points in terms of looking at exactly what Sa'afah did, but giving him his full eudos in understanding the other thing that the criticisms, for example, like Lord Bess and so on, making back sure of the man about, you call him an Anglo-Saxon and all that. He, in his own plantation economy model, and the one by persistent actual continuations of Sa'afah's model of the dual economy. Thank you. Well noted. In a world where research is shown currently that EMPESA in Kenya and similar institutions for the unbanked are having creating problems for the unbanked, could you clarify the end of what you were saying about the digital Caribbean dollar that it would work for the poorest of the poor? I'd like to know how, because they're not in this room to ask that question. Thank you. Right, so the way we see it is that they are the ones who pay disproportionately more of their income on payment services. So no, but whether it's remittances that they're getting, whether it is transfers that they have to make, money is coming out of what they receive. But the point is you want to be paying less for services. In other words, to my mind, a dollar for a poor person is more than $100 for you, perhaps for me. I want to make sure that most sense of that dollar stay in their hands. That's the value proposition. So we want to do something that touches people where they live. And the truth is that payments are the lifeblood of the economy. So if every time you swipe, somebody takes 3% or 5%. It adds up, it adds up, it adds up. So that's what I mean in that sense. So maybe I wasn't particularly clear, but hopefully it's a little clearer in terms of why we feel that that was helped. So after Lewis Community College, you have a nice logo. I like it. And I think we should congratulate you on it. This was just a little aside. Do you know, Mr. Antoine, that I now have to bless you rather than curse you? And I'll tell you why. Going to the bank, you said that the bank is very liquid. They have a lot of money. Why then do they continue to take from us every month? And there seem to be no policy among the various banks. Some take $25 a month, you know, from the little kakada we have there. Others take $2. I noticed they brought it up to $3. No, this is very important because our savings are being eroded every month. And if they have all this money, they should be giving us more interest. I feel like if I just received a delivery and I'm pitch keeping low, and let me hand the mic to Dr. LaCobbine. No, so let's very, very briefly. The law does not allow ECB to step in and tell them no, they can't. At the time people ask us why don't you step in? What the law allows us to do at the moment is ask them why, show us your justification, and give the customer at least one month's notice. That's really what we have in law. Now, we are discussing a couple of things. So in the meantime what we did is we published on our website all the fees are at least a bundle of fees in each country. If you go on the ECB website you will see the banks in the country and the fees for certain services. We did it as a service to the customer so you can sort of compete and contrast and kind of help you with choice. Secondly, we're looking at a Canadian model for what services can be low fee or low fees. Maybe one account is exempt and another one and other multiple accounts. You may charge something, but senior citizens. We've been looking at a few models about how we can kind of protect people, because that is a real concern. I will tell you the Monarchy Council, almost every meeting the ministers come very annoyed about that issue with the banks. Now, having said that, I do have to say on the banks side that the banks are under pressure as well. Yes, they have a lot of money, but it's your money and my money is deposits. They don't own it. They have it in trust, so they have to handle it with care. And a lot of the pressures that the banks are under are a combination of higher compliance costs based on a position overseas like the global FATF, OECD and so on. That's why it's so hard to open an account now. Years and they're asking you all sorts of things and every two years you have to go in and I go through the same thing that I'm a customer as well. The compliance costs are real and so our response to that is to bring the banks together and say let us do shared services so we lower those costs. And our hope is that when we lower those costs, some of that benefit is fast to the consumer. The last thing I'll say is that looking at some kind of consumer protection agency in either the ECCP or in an alternative party, we discussed in three or four options so that they can take complaints and address some of the market conduct issues. Right now, we're not in a law allowed to do that, but we understand that this is a particular problem, big one, that we need to try and come up with an appropriate response. What I did say last thing, the other thing is that because the banks are different and the malls are different, you have to be a little careful so you can't in a law legislate fees. You can give some protection but you have to be a little careful because one bank's model may be different for another. If a bank for example is doing a lot of digital services, their fees are likely to be lower than say a bank that's not doing. So we say to the banks certain services should be free and if the customer insists on other things then they pay. So for example you go for a statement, the bank should be able to tell you we send you the statement by email. If however you insist that you want a hard copy, you pay for the hard copy. That's an example of what we will ask the banks to do. But we fully hear you on that, it's a big issue. Governor, I would like to ask about the partial guarantee scheme. You mentioned 75% being guaranteed. Will there be a ceiling in terms of how much somebody can, how much that 75% will be in terms of the maximum amount? They are still looking at the numbers, but I know initially they were going small and they were looking at 300,000, but they were looking to see as well what the appetite in the market was, what the need demand was, but I think the number they were looking at was up to a max of 300,000 initially. Okay, the other thing is how soon would that partial guarantee scheme come into fruition? So the hope is that it would be this year. The board is in place, the team is in place, the members of staff, they are, they've got a setback, they were hoping to get their portal launched last year that got a little delayed, but they have assured me that they're going to be in the countries. They started with a roadshow early this year, so I am holding them accountable in that sense. And finally, the credit pre-euro that you spoke of, can you give us an idea of the status where it's at and how soon we expect it to be implemented in the ECCU? So here's the thing. Five of our countries have passed the law, so we're now looking to St. Lucia, Dominican and Guela to do that in short order. I've been assured that it will be done, but we do need it to be done. And I will tell you a little secret, don't tell anybody. The credit bureau operator wants to open the headquarters here, St. Lucia. So you need to pass the law soon. Now once that is done, what we plan to do this year is a massive public education campaign to make sure people understand. And then, and by the way, we hope credit unions will also benefit from it. And I want to make the point, credit bureau is not to block credit. It is to enable responsible borrowing and responsible lending. It's to assess and the price risk. Why should I be paying 10% if I could pay six, but I am paying 10% because they have no records on me and they need me to be high risk. Yet I'm a good credit, but they don't have my information. And why should they give you another loan when you owe in time, they can hurry alone? You shouldn't get another loan. So it goes both ways. And I want to be very clear about that. I'm not selling anything and hiding anything. No false advertising. Responsible borrowing and responsible lending. It goes both ways. So people with genuine credit, good credit will have opportunities, more access and lower price. And if you have bad credit, then you don't need another loan. Something that you mentioned concerning the youth and financial management in schools. We had a former principal who was always advocating of economics in school as a compulsory subject. And that's something I really wanted. I did economics in school too. But the young people today are very reckless in their desires and their spending and their priorities when it comes to paying back. Now you did mention that that is one of the downs in the whole financial banking system here. The bad loans, payments, people not having good credit ratings and so on. How do we instill that in young people curbing the desires for wanting things, a lot of things now, right now and instantly. And I'm sure you mentioned also that your mother was a teacher. So you probably weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth. So learning to curb your desires. And if you want that sports car now, you're going to get it right now. You have to sacrifice. You have to save and so on. There are not many people speaking to the young people today about sacrifice and hard work and getting their steady rate will come if you do certain things and not just gratifying themselves instantly getting what you want. So is the bank going to put something in place that you have entrepreneurship, junior entrepreneurship schemes and so on? With that, is there going to be that education of those people, those young people in prioritizing their spending and wants and desires and so on and being patient? Yes. So I've asked the team that did financial information want to come back to me with some ideas on how we can make this a grassroots movement in the ECCU. Really think strongly about that. I didn't know the financial freedom can be achieved regardless of the income that you have. The fundamental principle is not how much you earn is how much you spend. And a lot of us don't get that. And not just the youth, a lot of us don't get that. A lot of us don't get that. You know when I tell young people, here I was in the Ministry of Finance taking a bus. So before I got married, I had a student loan and I said I'm not going into that marriage with a student loan. So I make that a priority. So before I buy a car, I'm going to pay off the loan. I'm not going into marriage with a student loan. And I was taking a bus and people were like, you're working in Ministry of Finance, you have this and that, you're taking a bus. I paid off the student loan. And then I got married, senior economist, and I have a used car. And people, and then I became PS and I was still with a used car. A man like you driving that. But I had decided that I wanted to have my home before I was 30. And I decided that I was not going to be any and every loan I've ever had in life I've paid off well before the time. Because I understand that I save money and help myself if I paid off well. So I've committed to those things. Now in doing that, I have had to forego certain things. But I have certain goals. So I try to teach that to young people. For the entire evening I've been hearing speaking of two words productivity and competitiveness. But also those two words have another two meanings that we are not even talking about the persons who are talking that we want to be competitive and productivity. The problem we have, we have people on a diet of blood and starch. The starch that we eat is mostly wheat. On the wheat, they put extra protein in it that they call it lectin and that is causing serious problems with people and people are always sick. They have stomach problems, gut problems and people are always sick. How can those persons be competitive and productive when you have that situation? The healthcare is in a mess. Nobody is doing anything about it. How can these people do the work that they need to do to make the country productive and competitive? The last question. What I would say is this, sir, you need to be appointed as a health ambassador in this country. Because here's the thing. Government is pursuing national health insurance. It's important but it's a very expensive proposition. I mean that's a fact. And critical to our sustainable national health insurance is going to be primary health care, prevention, healthy and active lifestyle. Somebody is suited to talk about the nutrition and so on. A lot more of that will have to be done because hospitalizing people and hospitalizing people and then trying to get them well. Expensive and sometimes ultimately not effective. So the appointment is well made and I think we need to see more of that even when we produce health care. In other words, insurance is not a panacea where no, I could get sick and it's like somebody say, well, I pay for insurance so I could go and bounce the car. You may not survive the accident to collect the insurance. You see what I mean? It's a protection but you don't want to really have to use it. So that is where we need to put a lot of emphasis. And I think you're on that track and hopefully some of your views can be heard and used. Thank you.