 Hello and welcome to a special report from the Government Information Service. We are at the Harbour Club Resort in Rodney Bay, where a meeting convened by the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Hon. Alan Chastney and members of the Cabinet was held with members of the private sector as well as trade unions. That meeting is very critical as the country faces the impact of COVID-19. I'm now joined by the Minister for Commerce, Investment and Consumer Affairs Hon. Bradley Felix. Mr Minister, we heard a lot during today's meeting that included concerns and suggestions from the private sector as well as some other representative groups, including trade unions as to the way forward as we have now recorded two cases, two imported cases of COVID-19. First on the list, what everyone is anticipating and certainly the public of St. Lucia is a question as to whether we will be seeing a sort of lockdown of sorts, a partial shutdown although we've been cautioned against the use of the word shutdown because it connotes certain suggestions from people's minds, but where is the sort of leaning of the government at this time? Well, yes, Lisa, as you rightly indicated, lots of concerns being expressed here today. You would have heard that we have began the whole precautionary measures by an early school closure. So school will be out tomorrow for two weeks, well, until the Easter weekend and then after that a decision will be made as to the way forward. Lots of questions as regards to whether we should consider various restrictions at our borders. Also, you would have heard that we did extend the travel ban to some other European countries and there currently is discussion as to how we deal with Martinique. Martinique is peculiar because while Martinique comes under the French rule, Martinique is also part of us within the OECS. So there are certain legalities that we have to ensure that we have properly covered. But the concerns are real. The government will take, is taking it extremely serious. In fact, tomorrow we have the NIMAC meeting which would expand further into additional action to be taken by government. And obviously the Prime Minister has indicated he's going to have a national address tomorrow evening. So lots will be happening. Tomorrow cabinet will be meeting and I can assure you specifically on the agenda would be taking some of the hard decisions as it relates to the way forward. So I don't want to preempt and say making any decisions, but you would have heard plenty of concerns today as it relates to business continuity, how employees who are going to be affected will be compensated, how banks are going to address this thing going forward, the trade unions. I mean, all sectors were involved. So I think tomorrow evening with the Prime Minister's address, we will have a more comprehensive response as to how the country gets at this juncture. And finally, Mr. Minister, the added supply chain, that's very, very important because why people are calling for the closure of the ports, it's to fold. Because not only do we have the sort of travel for tourists, the visitors, people returning home, but we also have the ports where we have our goods coming in. So that makes it very difficult. While we have announced that cruise ships will not be allowed to both come Monday morning, but certainly for keeping that supply chain open, it is important that this function continues. Yes, as you rightly said, the whole issue of the cruise lines is one matter. Shutting down commerce with our whole distributed trade is another matter completely. And this would be, I mean, a matter of last resort. I don't think it is something that we have begun to consider as it relates to the shutting down of trade because you can well imagine the consequence. So the whole issue of cargo handling, cargo movement, in terms of maybe how we bought ships, for example, is some of the issues that we have to look at in terms of protecting the workers. But at this point to indicate that government is looking at shutting down the whole trading component is not something that we are currently discussing. I agree and you have heard the whole issue of the cruise sector and various pleasure boats and this is something we can make a decision on. But the whole issue of the trade component is not one that I think that we should take very lightly. And certainly the Chamber of Commerce, through its representative, the executive director, Ryan Uisey, said so that it is important for the business community to be able to have that supply chain because with the sort of panic buying that we've seen right now, shelves are running out, the warehouses are running out. So we need to be able to replenish that stock so as not to leave the Senutian population high and dry, as we say in our local palace. But there will be the criticism, Minister, that perhaps the government is placing the almighty dollar over lives because we've seen that posted all over social media. Can you just perhaps break down, if you can, the importance of not cutting off that supply chain and break it down so that the ordinary man can understand it? But Lisa, I mean, when we speak of lives and saving lives, the whole issue of trade is about it because you're talking about pharmaceuticals coming into the country, supplies that are needed for the basic survival of humanity to continue. So these are things that, I mean, we must consider. Do our manufacturers have the sort of financial ability to stock raw material for a year, for example? I doubt it. So we must consider all of these things. One of the things that I continue to indicate, which is, I believe, a positive coming out of all of that is, as a people, we should now appreciate our local enterprise, our local manufacturers, our local agro producers, because at the end of the day, it's all about going back to basics, looking at what we have, how we can self-survive, which is very important in this time. So I know you want me to say a lot more, Lisa. I don't want to say anything before the Prime Minister makes his statement. So I'd want to say on the side. Absolutely. Thank you very much. We've been speaking there with the Minister of Responsibility for Commerce Honourable Bradley Felix. I'm now joined by the Minister for Tourism, Information Broadcasting, Creative Industries and Culture, the Honourable Dominic Fede. In today's meeting, we heard a lot of coming out of the tourism stakeholders. Mr. Minister, the stakeholders are concerned about the economic fallout. They're concerned about the contagion as well. And then you have the workers and the wider public concerned merely about what's happening in terms of infection, the contagion. For you as the Minister, I'm sure there's a balancing act that needs to be done. How are you taking the concerns that you heard today and how will that factor into the sort of final decision you and the rest of the government would have to make? Well, Lisa, I can tell you at the time very pleased with the response by the tourism community so far. I think that while they are concerned about their businesses and while they're concerned about their numbers, that they're also very much concerned about the health of the Sint-Lewsian people. We all are. And I think that what we're allowing is for the health department to take the lead and for the health of our country to take first precedence before we talk about arrivals and numbers and figures. So I want to leave your viewers with every assurance that the health of the Sint-Lewsian people is of primary importance to the tourism sector. In fact, there's a strong correlation between the health of our country and the economy and the capacity of the industry being able to return to its glory days. It's going to be very difficult to recover. This is one of the most difficult periods and complex global challenges that not just tourism but I think as a country that we're all facing. And speaking to the complexity of the situation, some people believe that we really ought to just ban all flights, suspend all flights. But it's not as easily done as being said, is it? Well, you have to take a number of things into consideration. First of all, you have to take the health of your country into consideration to make sure that your people are safeguarded and protected at every step of the way. We have been turning away cruise ships. So we have turned away about four to five cruise ships this season in the interests of the people. We have just today announced a travel ban on our second most important market, the United Kingdom, which is about 20% of our total business in the state of the segment. And it's pretty significant. And as well, we are looking at the final leg, which would be the number one market, the United States. But in all of this, we also have to think of the jobs of our country. We have to think of people's loan payments. We have to think of the economic fallout. So it's a catch 22 situation. And it's a very, very difficult act to balance. I know that as you mentioned there, the loans, mortgages and so forth that workers and businesses need to meet. There's a lot of talk about what is going on today, some of the buffering that can happen. Can you give us some insight into what some of those considerations may be in terms of buffer some of what's happening with the businesses? Well, the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister has been very proactive in ensuring that we come up with likely scenarios. So the first thing we did, we formed an economic committee and we said, let's look at what the fallout in the economy is going to be because of the negative returns that we're expecting from tourism. So we crunched some scenarios and we looked at the economic indicators of the country, including the debt to GDP ratio and the drying up of revenues and the balances overall and primary balances of our country. And it did make for very, very bleak reading. And then as well, we looked at some scenarios in terms of what we can do to help businesses in terms of helping them to stay and to keep their doors open for as long as possible and to avoid them laying off employees for as long as possible. We are very close to unveiling a very specific stimulus package to the business community. We've been dialoguing with the Chamber. We've had dialogue with the hotel community as well to look at some of those specific things that we can do. A lot of it would be centered around tax concessions. We would also have to look at unemployment benefits to people who could be laid off from their work. So there are a number of likelihoods and there are a number of issues that we need to deal with in a very specific way. What I can promise you is that this will be happened very swiftly and expeditiously. And of course we'll be hearing a lot on that from the NEMAC meeting that's scheduled to take place Monday morning and as well as the Prime Minister's address to the nation which is scheduled for Monday evening. So I want to thank you very much Minister Dominic Fede there, the Minister for Tourism, Information Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries. And just to reiterate for you some of the information that we alluded to earlier regarding the travel restrictions. Earlier today you would have heard that the Ministry of Health and the Government acting on that advised by the Ministry of Health the travel restrictions. Initially we had a mainland China, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy and Singapore. We have now included Spain, mainland France, Germany and Iran and the UK effective March 17, 2020. And with regards to Martinique the authorities here are working with the authorities in Martinique in defining the terms of commute between the borders. Now persons who travel from the US, the United States are our largest source market for tourism. Those who are traveling within the last 14 days who develop respiratory signs and symptoms will be isolated and tested. Now any national returning from the identified countries will be quarantined for 14 days and effective Monday cruise ships will not be allowed to berth at the ports here in Cass Street, St. Lucia. That brings us to the end of our special reporting from Harbor Club in Rodney Bay. I am Lisa Joseph on behalf of the entire team of the Government Information Service.