 Welcome to Nation Beat, I am Genelle Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St Lucia. Government's plans for a home port in Viewfort are advancing, St Lucia's country poverty assessment strategy gets underway, and a 15-year alliance with the University of Vermont yields results in the education sector. Gen Lucia's tourism industry is poised for a major boost as governments plans for the establishment of a home port in Viewfort take shape. On Thursday, Prime Minister, the Honourable Alan Shasne, updated the business community on the proposed development which forms part of the Desert Star Holding Pearl of the Caribbean project. The Prime Minister was the feature speaker at the Chamber of Commerce's Encounter series. Members of the Chamber received first-hand information on where the government is at with development plans announced in the 2018-2019 budget. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shasne told members of the business community that government remains committed to bringing about economic opportunities and prosperity to the island. A major element of the government's plans is the Pearl of the Caribbean development by Desert Star Holdings. The multi-billion dollar project is divided into three components, designated Sites A, B and C. Sites C is designed to capitalise and expand Gen Lucia's growth in the cruise tourism sector. Already, the island has recorded a whopping 31.9% increase in cruise arrivals this year, stemming from the expansion of the berth at Point Seraphine to accommodate freedom-class cruise vessels. Prime Minister Shasne explained that Castries has reached its capacity, which paves the way for Viewfort to become a home port. The Prime Minister revealed that negotiations with Carnival Cruise Lines for the construction of a terminal have reached agreement in principle. The only part that is pending is the simulation test because Carnival has identified two potential locations. One is the old or existing cargo dock in Viewfort, or the location that we have by the Il Purata site. Clearly, the government's preference is the site by Il Purata because we believe from a medium-term to long-term perspective, there's more scope for expansion. The Prime Minister noted that while the expansion works at Point Seraphine have improved the class of vessels being accommodated, the newer ships, such as the Oasis and Genesis, with passenger capacities of more than 6,000 people, are still not in reach. Prime Minister Shasne envisages Viewfort abuzz with that activity. The centerpiece of the home porting project will be the expansion of the Hironora International Airport. The runway will be extended and the existing terminal will be transformed into a fixed-based operation for private jets. What we have done is move the location of the terminal to the bottom of the Cacabeth. So it's actually, if I'm facing back to land on the left-hand side of the airport terminal, which would allow us now to maintain the existing terminal into an operation and now have it being dedicated as a charter terminal. So it means that people would be able to get off the chartered flights and go straight on to the ship within three or four minutes of arriving, sorry, getting off through the terminal. Meantime, the horse racing track which forms part of the site A of the DSH project is advancing. In addition to the horse racing track, there is a piece of land that is at the southern end of the development closer to the La Rousseau Road junction, which is about 35 to 40 acres of land, which is going to be made into a commercial slash residential development area. So there will be office spaces, there will be commercial spaces and there will be residential spaces. That aspect of the project, the Prime Minister informed, is due to commence early next year. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. As you heard in that Lisa Joseph report, the Government of St. Lucia has secured a loan from the Government of the Republic of China Taiwan in the amount of US$100 million to execute the rehabilitation of the Hironora International Airport. Prime Minister Shasne says parliamentary approval will soon be sought for the borrowing. That money is being paid for by the airport tax that will be assigned to them and that we are going to be using a Taiwanese construction company called OECC. They're the same company that did the airport in St. Vincent and have also done airports and highways in Guatemala and major infrastructural projects in Haiti that's in this region, but they're also the ones that are involved in the major expansion of the airport in Taipei. The Prime Minister informed that the Taiwanese company OECC will have a project oversight, however local firms will be subcontracted for work on the construction project. The Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Local Government recently held a consultation meeting to formalize the undertaking of St. Lucia's Country Poverty Assessment Strategy. The economic crisis has brought forth the need to have social stability and provide security for the people. To accomplish this mom-of-task, the Government of St. Lucia appointed a national team to assess the poverty situation in St. Lucia. On Wednesday November 14, 2018, the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Local Government held the first consultation meeting to formalize the undertaking of the development of St. Lucia's Country Poverty Assessment Strategy. The national assessment team will be chaired by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Local Government, Donovan Williams. This morning was our first meeting where we revisited and reviewed and agreed on the terms of reference for the committee. We had some discussions on the overall work plan, what is to be done to complete the assessment, who is going to be involved in that process, and also to speak a little bit more about the need for us to ensure that a lot of the decision making that we make with respect to policy and programs that focus on the reduction of poverty are done primarily through the gathering and the use of data and evidence. Team members comprises of stakeholders from the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations, Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Local Government, National Youth Council, National Council for Older Persons and Persons with Disabilities, the National Utility Regulatory Commission and the Office of the Leader of Opposition. The meeting provided guidance to members on the issue of poverty and examined poverty vulnerability throughout St. Lucia. Director of Research, Tommy Descartes tells us more about this new initiative. The Country Poverty Assessment has several components, the first being the survey of living conditions, which has already been done by the Central Statistics Department and there's also the Participatory Poverty Assessment, the Institutional Assessment and the Macril Economic Assessment. St. Lucia's last poverty assessment was done in 2006, reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Local Government, I am Shivre Marius. This is Nation Beat, when we come back, details on how St. Lucia has benefited from a 15-year alliance with the University of Vermont. One is at risk for getting a foodborne illness. While most foodborne illness cases are mild and go unreported, long-term health complications and even death can occur from a foodborne illness. Foodborne illnesses are caused by contamination of food at any stage of preparation. If you are a food handler involved in home-based food production, meat, fish, chicken or a big shop, as a food vendor, how you prepare food can put your customers at risk. Do you know the risks and how to avoid them? The St. Lucia Bureau of Standards can help you. For more information, contact the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards at 456-0546 or email SLBS at candw.lc or visit the website at www.slbs.org.lc. St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, making quality and standards our way of life. Welcome back! Health Services' response to persons affected by emergencies and traumatic events in St. Lucia is expected to be enhanced as a psychological first-aid training for emergency responders and health workers was held recently. Fennel Neptune reports. The psychological first-aid training provided health workers and emergency responders with the necessary skills to provide psychosocial support to individuals, families and communities in the immediate aftermath of a disaster or traumatic event. Consultant psychiatrists at the National Mental Wellness Centre, Dr Julius Gillard said, this training exercise is important as it will provide participants with strategies for managing emotions and promoting a safe and calm environment. We are training persons in psychological first-aid, which would be given to persons after a crisis event, and they will be trained on how to approach persons, what to say to them which would help them deal with the situation and what not to say to them which would cause more harm than good. Dr Gillard emphasized that psychological first-aid rather than psychological debriefing should be offered to people who were recently exposed to a traumatic event. In times gone by, what used to happen was that after a crisis event, persons would receive psychological debriefing. And what studies have shown is that that has tended to cause more harm than good and can actually precipitate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Whereas psychological first-aid is more or less like if we can use an anecdote, like putting a band-aid on a wound, so the persons would initially receive psychosocial support and if they would need more than that, they would refer to the appropriate agency like a counsellor or psychiatrist where they can get further support. The psychological first-aid training was made possible for the support of the Pan-American Health Organization PAHO and the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fenoleption. A 15-year-long alliance between the Government of St. Lucia and the University of Vermont has proved fruitful in the areas of research, education, community development, and science and technology. Since 2004, an agreement of cooperation has facilitated a mutually beneficial relationship between the Ministry of Commerce and the University of Vermont's Department of Community Development and Applied Economics. Lecturer from the University of Vermont, Kevin Stapleton says the coming year will see the unveiling of various developmental projects. The three main projects we have this year, we're doing a survey with the Consumer Affairs Department about the utilities, specifically WASCO and LUSALEC and the consumer experience with those utilities. That will be for students, they will be visiting Grozellet, Casteries, Souffreir and View Fort. And then we have a group working with the Beton Management Area, Augustine Dominique in particular, doing some research into the impact of the PMA on the people around Souffreir and the people of the area. Stapleton says over the last 15 years, staff and hundreds of students from the University of Vermont have enjoyed a fulfilling and enjoyable experience in St. Lucia. One thing we try very hard to do is we come as tourists of course, but we also try to immerse the students in the culture. We stay at a small locally owned inn, we eat all of our meals at a small locally owned restaurant. We want to make sure that the students experience really the depth of the culture in St. Lucia. Director of Consumer Affairs, Gilom Simon says his own division has benefited from professional development of staff in the area of consumer protection. Staff at the division have received training in areas such as consumer law and policy offered on campus at the University of Vermont. We've had teams who have gone up to the University of Vermont to undertake courses of study. We've also had training by the University of Vermont done locally and this has really assisted the department in terms of building capacity. The team from Vermont have as well worked with other project partners in terms of the transferring of knowledge as it relates to some of the areas that they have in fact worked. Since the signing of the agreement, research has been conducted on the Perales Seamos Farmers, implementation of Hydro-Electronic Power in St. Lucia and a survey on the Peter Management Area PMA. From the Department of Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs, I am Marvin St. Louis reporting. That's nation beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with our repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am General Novel.