 Access to finance continues to be a major issue affecting the growth and development of small, medium and micro enterprises. The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, NCPC, spearheaded a piece of legislative reform labelled the Security Interest in Movable Assets Act which aims to bridge the financing gap and improve national productivity and competitiveness. The development of St. Lucia's collateral registry in movable properties is a vital ingredient for the effectiveness of this new legislation. Elaine McCackrin is the global specialist for Secure Transactions, an asset-based lending with IFC's financial institutions group. She explained the significance of the collateral registry, particularly to the banking and legal sectors. So what we're hoping to see is that St. Lucia is going to be first, so it's a pioneer in the Eastern Caribbean region and particularly within the OECS member states. And so because they're going first, because St. Lucia is going first, we really hope that the other member states will come on board over the next number of years and that there can be a lot of learning and economies of scale that can result in the region benefiting that from that reform, which should lead to greater economic opportunities, both for the financial institutions in terms of their expanded lines of businesses in terms of financial products and services. But more particularly for the SME sector in having the ability to address access to finance. As part of the roadmap of activities for the full implementation of the legislation, a trading session for bankers and lawyers was held at the Finance Administrative Center in April 2023. The trading session provided an introduction to the collateral registry system for St. Lucia and addressed concerns and suggestions meant to improve the overall functioning of the collateral registry. Sasha Kossich, the senior consultant with IUS Partners, the developers of St. Lucia's collateral registry, facilitated the trading session and was most impressed with the interest shown. Such a large group and such an interest of all the participating parties, bankers, lawyers, we had 84 bankers over 40 lawyers the next meeting was so it was obvious that all of the private sector and the lawyers are more than willing and eagerly expecting the implementation of the mobile collateral system. The High Court will host, manage and administer the operations of the collateral registry system when it goes live. The technical staff of the High Court were also among the stakeholders at the trading sessions. I have no doubts they will be more than capable to take over the full responsibility for the operation of the mobile collateral system. Director of the NCPC, Lisa Floramontut, said the NCPC remains focused and resolute in ensuring the proper and effective implementation of the legislation and in particular the rollout, sensitization and utilization of the collateral registry which is germane to the security interests in Moveable Properties Act. The collateral registry is really one that is beneficial to small, medium enterprises in St. Lucia in gaining ease of access to financing for their businesses in order to increase their productivity. The developers, the team from IFC and the NCPC will continue training sessions and launch a public awareness campaign on the use and benefits of this new system. The collateral registry system is scheduled to go live in September 2023. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.