 The Philip J. Pierre administration has laid the foundation to usher a new era of entrepreneurship for St. Lucia's micro-small and medium-sized enterprises sector. On March 16, the Ministry of Commerce, led by Honorable Emma Hippolett, in collaboration with the St. Lucia Development Bank, officially launched the MSME Loan Grant Facility 10 million EC dollars has been allocated to the MSME Loan Grant Facility At least 500 small business owners stand to benefit from the facility which offers qualified applicants improved access to financing to facilitate startups and business expansion. I said to my colleagues that we have to do something for small businesses and it's clear in our manifesto we said and I quote to to address the challenge we articulated a clear policy position in our 2021-2026 manifesto to implement a series of measures to revitalize the business sector which included and I quote to provide partial government guarantees to finance institutions for financing the working capital requirements of affected businesses during the recovery progress process that was a manifesto quote and that is a manifesto quote that's happening live and direct this morning. 70 percent is the grant and 30 percent is alone. Qualified entrepreneurs and new business owners can access up to 10,000 EC dollars. Eligible businesses less than two years old can apply for up to 20,000 dollars and qualified businesses operating for more than two years will be eligible to receive up to 25,000 dollars. Funding is apportioned in the ratio 70 percent grant and 30 percent loan at a concessionary rate of just 3 percent for successful applicants. The newly minted MSME Loan Grant Facility demonstrates Prime Minister Pierre's confidence in Saint Lucia's small business sector. We have to have wealth creators. We can't have only people working for people. The service industry is fine. I'm a 100 percent supporter of the service industries but we need to have people to create things so that the people in the service industry can enjoy. We need to have innovators. We need entrepreneurs. We need small businesses to develop. We have examples of small businesses that have developed. There is JQ Charles, there is AF Valmont. These people are small businesses that developed and grew and grew to become global type entrepreneurs. We need people in Saint Lucia who can make it. The $10 million funding for the Pierre administration's MSME Loan Grant Facility was derived from the Caribbean Development Bank's Special Development Fund 10th cycle loan facility from the office of the Prime Minister, Rihanny Isidore.