 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. Government's national development plans are expected to be rolled out with much more ease due to support from the World Bank. Persons in St. Lucia living with HIV are recording longer life spans. A new vision is articulated for the investment landscape and the spirit of volunteerism in St. Lucia is reignited. Government's national development plans are expected to be rolled out with much more ease due to support from the World Bank. The International Development Association IDA is the part of the World Bank that helps the world's poorest countries. Overseen by 173 shareholder nations, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing loans called credits and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve people's living conditions. According to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Development Philip Dalso, St. Lucia received approximately $67 million, $20 million of which has been allocated to the health system strengthening project. He highlighted the Government's plans for the balance. The bulk of the funds that the Government is looking at is to have what we call a development policy credit. That would be the lion's share. What this is, is money that the World Bank would give the Government, part of that money on condition that the Government meets certain prior actions. There would be certain policies that the Government would be required to implement and then this money would become available for the Government to choose as part of its budget support. It would be now really dependent on how the Government would like to allocate this money. There would be no conditions apart from the prior policy actions that the Government would need to meet. And right now the Government is in discussions with the World Bank and the Department of Finance is spearheading these discussions. So once there is agreement on those what we call a prior policy actions, then the money will become available and the Government now can spend this money in its budget as it chooses. Ida lends money on concessional terms. This means that Ida credits have a zero of very low interest charge and repayments are stretched over 30 to 38 years including a 5 to 10 year grace period. Ida also provides grants to countries at risk of debt distress. According to the Permanent Secretary, St. Lucia has been benefitting from Ida funding for years now. Ida 18 is a three year essentially line of funding. It was actually triple for St. Lucia from Ida 17. Every three years we get a rolling Ida. So the next one will be Ida 19 after three years. So St. Lucia benefitted tremendously. We received approximately US $67 million. This funding is highly concessional. This is all of Ida money. We're talking about a grace period of 10 years. You don't pay anything in the first 10 years and the loan is up to 40 years and the interest rate is just over 1%. So you imagine some funding that St. Lucia would like to benefit from. Ida is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world's 75 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa and is the single largest source of donor funds for basic social services in these countries. Persons in St. Lucia living with HIV are recording longer lifespans in addition to a better quality of life due in large part to interventions and medication from the Ministry of Health and Wellness. The first case of HIV in St. Lucia was diagnosed in 1985. Since then the Ministry with responsibility for the health of the population instituted a surveillance system to monitor and treat the disease. To date the current number of cases from 1985 to 2018 is just under 800. Acting National Epidemiologist Dr. Michelle Francois says this is nothing to be alarmed about. She noted that through the health ministry, persons with HIV are living longer, more productive lives. It is a relatively manageable number. Our incidence and prevalence rates are still below 1%. So we are doing well in terms of management. We are seeing that persons survive longer. We do have a few challenges which we are trying to address in terms of the social aspect because a lot of our persons living with HIV do come from homes where they have significant social problems. So in terms of, for example, simple things like medication, we have to ensure that persons receive meals before taking medication and that is one of the complaints that we have in terms of listen, if I don't eat, I can't take the medication. So that is one of the issues that we are trying to address. We understand it and we work with patients accordingly to address whatever issues that they do have. The Ministry of Health and Wellness recorded more than one milestone in dealing with the HIV incidences on Ireland. According to Dr. Fraswa, aside from using condoms and getting tested, antiretroviral drugs are being used as a means of preventing the spread of the disease. Yes, treatment is now prevention. We do offer prevention, well treatment to persons as a means of prevention. Persons in serodiscordant couples, or serodiscordant couples I should say, do receive treatment. So by serodiscordant are actually main persons where you have one partner positive and one negative. So to prevent the negative partner from acquiring the virus, we place them on antiretroviral therapy. We currently do that for that specific group and so the medication as with a positive person is also free of charge. This is not the first instance of success for St. Lucia. Ireland was one of the first in the Caribbean to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Dr. Fraswa explains how this is done. We do not have any recorded cases of mother to child transmission from 2006 and we are very, very proud of that accomplishment. We have in house a PMTCT prevention mother to child transmission coordinator who follows up every pregnant woman HIV positive. So she follows this individual up throughout pregnancy ensuring that she comes in, that she is on medication. When she is hospitalized she gets rid of it, she walks her through and follows up the infant who is we consider exposed because the mother is positive. We also follow up that infant in the clinic as well. So there are several tests which have to be done to ensure that that infant is not positive. Acting national epidemiologist Dr. Michelle Fraswa From the Government Information Service, I am Jacques Kingston Compton. The Banana Productivity Improvement Project is looking to continue success as it celebrates its second year of guiding production in the banana industry. Project manager Codd Severin says among the gains are the significant increases in production, export and farms. The export tonnage was somewhere around the last figures I think in 2015 up until the UK it was just about 7,000 tons there about. But more critically the acreage was about 1,117. The number of farmers was just below 300. To date we have doubled that acreage, we are now at 2,384. The number of farmers have now also doubled. We are now up to I think what 578 farmers. More importantly also we saw an improvement in the productivity. I believe we were probably nearing 15 tons to the acre. In fact in some areas like Didlow, Crownlands, farmers there would tell you that they were probably doing maybe close to 20 tons to the acre because the bunches were the smallest would be 12,13 tons. So productivity was also on the increase. Sadly Kirk came and we have to start all over again. Tropical Storm Kirk Delta CVR blow to the industry however the unit is providing assistance to farmers through an approved government relief scheme. The impact was felt more in the northern, what I call the northern, the coastal areas. I want to talk about the northern, if we start with Rosu, or if we start from the north, Babuno Forest here and you come down to the Didlow, Crownlands area and then you go down to Rosu and then you leave Rosu and then you go down to the Mabuiah Valley and from the Mabuiah Valley if you go down to Prali, Mamiku, Forest State and then you go down to Canels. All these areas were severely hit. You're talking about averaging somewhere between 75 and 90% anywhere around that. Some farms would have experienced 100% altogether. The Banana Productivity Improvement Project was established to help resuscitate the banana industry, increase productivity, renew income and earning streams and increase exports. This is Nation Beat. When we come back, a new vision is articulated for the investment landscape. When you're out at sea, there are no service stations along the way or supermarkets for a quick stop if you need something. It is essential that everything you would need while at sea is on the boat before you leave. That's why pre-sea checks are so important. Checks should be carried out by more than one person to ensure that all essentials are on board. Pre-sea checks should include food stores, extra water and fuel, navigational equipment, safety gear and communication equipment. Before heading out to sea, always ensure that all equipment is in working order. You are stocked up on food and also extra fuel. Call the lighthouse to inform them of your voyage prime and inform someone responsible of your departure time and estimate the time of arrival back on shore. For more information on obtaining a license to fish, contact the Department of Fisheries at 468-4143. Welcome back. The newly-installed Chief Executive Officer of Invest Inclusion, Roger Sherry, met the press officially on Monday. Sherry assumed the post of CEO on 2 October 2018 following a two-year seven-month stint as CEO of the St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association. Citing over 20 years' experience in management and marketing, having served in numerous roles, Sherry stated when this opportunity presented itself, he jumped at it. He expressed confidence that he was the right man for the job given his knowledge, skills and capabilities. The CEO highlighted the critical role played by Invest Inclusion in the development of St Lucia. He added that a greater effort should be put into strategizing. Invest Inclusion is a pretty solid team of people working at the moment and it enjoys support, good support from the board of directors. I'm not preempting too much some of your questions. What I can say is that at the moment I'm in the organization. I'm at its people, performance, I'm reviewing the strategy, what the external environment is and current policy direction. I think it is too soon for me to give you detailed plans but I can say that my focus would be on strategic promotion of the country externally. I think we need to develop a targeted strategy for promoting local investment and regional investment. My view is also that we need to use technology as enablers for business processes within the country. Sherry underscored the importance of accountability and gave the assurance that investing Lucia will be more consistent as it relates to disseminating information to the public via the media. This, he said, is an area of priority for him coming into the organization as the flow of information to the public is vital to it understanding the role of investing Lucia and how it can benefit from its interventions. We need to improve the communication with the wider society. My view is that ISL does a hell of a good job. However, it is probably one of the best kept secrets in San Lucia. We obviously will not be able to deliver confidential information but a lot of the work that ISL does should be made available to our media partners. So it is my intention to practically improve our communication, particularly locally because I think that lack of information breeds misinformation which can lead to mischief. We will frame our narrative and you will be our partners in the region. Sherry also served previously in roles with the National Insurance Property Development and Management Company and the San Lucia National Conservation Fund. He also held a position of Senior Manager for Marketing at East Caribbean Financial Holdings ECFH. Junior Achievement Saint Lucia has been concentrating on developing the spirit of entrepreneurship in young people through school and community programs. Toward that goal, Invest Saint Lucia has donated a check of $15,000 to the organization. Today I am sincerely grateful to Invest Saint Lucia for their investment in Junior Achievement and I want to thank them on behalf of the Board, the Secretariat of Junior Achievement Saint Lucia but more importantly I want to thank them for the young person sitting in school right now that is going to be empowered through this financial injection to be able to have a viable option when that person leaves school that they are not just in operating within the norm that they come out to school and look for a job but they actually have the skills, competence and the entrepreneurial spirit that allows them to be able to have another viable option when they leave school. Our primary school program starts the kids with basic financial. Today I am sincerely grateful to Invest Saint Lucia for their investment in Junior Achievement and I want to thank them on behalf of the Board, the Secretariat of Junior Achievement Saint Lucia Meantime the National Volunteer Program on Friday made a donation of school supplies to the youth Consultant with the National Volunteer Program, Diane Feliciae, rehashed the focus of the program which is to create a renewed spirit of volunteerism in Saint Lucia by recruiting, training, certifying volunteers while encouraging and organizing challenging volunteer opportunities through a strengthened coalition with the Private and Civil Society. Volunteer Saint Lucia is a non-profit organization under the patronage of the Governor General His Excellency Sir Neville Snack designed to create a renewed spirit of volunteerism in Saint Lucia This is accomplished by recruiting, training, certifying and recognizing volunteers At Volunteer Saint Lucia we offer the youth an opportunity to learn and grow into productive members of society and in recognizing the youth as the leaders of tomorrow we have adopted a culture of exposing them to real world experience by having them lead our chapters around the island Today we are here to make a contribution to our youth of Saint Lucia towards their education Volunteer Saint Lucia would like to thank the sponsors, Saint Lucia Social Development Fund and Computer World for making this presentation here today possible We encourage the support of other donors and we also encourage them to support initiatives like this To end I would like to say to you students here today where you came from does not determine where you are going and what you are going to achieve I always say to everyone, do not forget where you come from always remain focused and humble In the wake of the reported 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on the evening of Saturday 6 October 2018 the government of Saint Lucia has expressed condolences to the government and people of Haiti At least 12 people have died and over 200 were injured in the earthquake and at least one aftershock that rocked the northern part of the island In a statement on Monday Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shasne called on Saint Lucia to keep the people of Haiti in their thoughts and prayers This is reportedly the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti since 2010 when a 7.5 magnitude quake left more than 220,000 people dead and over 300,000 were injured That's Nation Beat join us next time as we fill the pulse and heart of our community You can also catch up with us anytime on the Saint Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel I am Janelle Norville