 Welcome! This is Nation Beat Wednesday. I am Richmond Felix with your daily bulletin from the Government Information Service. Here are the bullet points from the team. The Caribbean Tourism Security Program provides support for a safer destination experience. A technical diagnostic mission looks at development in agro-processing. Export Senlusha says there is growing demand for our agricultural commodities and no spike in the number of newly recorded cases of HIV infections. The Senlusha Tourism Authority's UK showcase provided the ideal preface for many key industry meetings with travel partners and the media. During the week, September 10-14, Senlusha Tourism officials conducted face-to-face meetings with partners from the Association of British Travel Agents. Earlier today, the team held a media briefing to provide an update. Journal Novel has the details. Topics during the meetings include the impact of Brexit on tourism and the growing trends for British holidaymakers such as sustainable tourism. Speaking on the importance of the UK Visit and Showcase, officials of the Senlusha Tourism Authority highlighted the positive strides made because of the showcase. The UK Senlusha's second largest market, which continues to show growth according to officials. Chief Marketing Officer of the SLT, Tiffany Howard, opined that there is a strong connection with the destination and as trends move towards more authentic experiences, the Village Tourism Project will feel that growing demand. This was everything from our meetings that we did with the travel agents, with the tour operators, with the airline partners, with the media. I mean, we covered the entire gamut of business in terms of our tourism business in the UK while we were there. And I'm just really excited about what we were able to accomplish while we were there. I think we were able to not just strengthen the relationships, but build some new relationships as well as some new partnerships. And I'm very excited about that. The minister is going to come up and talk to you very specifically about some things that we did. But overall for St. Lucia, it was a huge, huge, huge positive win for us. St. Lucia also hosted a UK media lunch at Daphnis Kensington with 25 prominent media houses in attendance, including The Telegraph, The Times, National Geographic and Hello! magazine. The St. Lucia tourism contingent also conducted two other important trade accessions. The first was a meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, my spy and networking session, held on Monday, September 10, 2018, where destination officials presented to potential clients and had a chance to have one-on-one interactions. The second trade event was an appreciation dinner with senior airline officials and tour operators on the evening of September 11. The St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association SLTA was also represented at the showcase by Harbour Club and the landings to name a few. The representatives provided feedback on their first-time attendance at the showcase. The first event that was held was some mice agents as well. That was really well coordinated as well. We have some really good leads. We are really pushing and focusing a lot on cricket, certainly the Women's T20 this year. We are also looking out to England versus the West Indies next year as well. And we are hopeful with the CPL as well. So again, we are following through on those great organized meetings that were held. And we took the opportunity while we were there as well to go to some of our key tour operators in UK. The UK market for us is not really a very strong market for us, certainly the US. But what we are actually seeing is significant growth right now coming through as well. Having that focus on St. Lucia in over two days was very important for us as well. As compared to, we got a lot of comparisons to the world travel market where you are competing with a lot of other destinations. But just having that focus on St. Lucia, having those key tour operators present was very important for us at Harbour Club as a new property, being able to engage in new opportunities and to shore up and cement the ones that we already have. The St. Lucia delegation took full advantage of the opportunity having several interviews with the UK press, providing them with an island update which highlighted recent developments across the tourism sector and gave an outlook on St. Lucia's tourism product for 2019. The team was led by Minister of Responsibility for Tourism Dominic Fede who highlighted a great demand for the St. Lucia product and stressed that no opportunity was unexplored. There are some exciting marketing initiatives that are happening in the UK. So in addition to our co-op agreements, you guys would have seen that we posted online via travel St. Lucia. They wrapped St. Lucia, wrapped London taxis and they're all over London. Travelers, people who are travelling in and around London having the opportunity to then ask the taxi drivers questions about the destination. The taxi drivers are obviously well trained. They are like St. Lucia specialists in their own right. It was really a very, very inspiring moment to see it. Here is a small island in the Caribbean showcasing itself so expertly in one of the best cities in the world and one of the largest tourism markets. It's visibility that you don't have enough money to buy. St. Lucia officials had several meetings with various stakeholders to not only update them on St. Lucia's offerings but to reinforce St. Lucia as the number one tourism destination in the world. Latest year-to-date stay-over arrival figures as at July 2018 show the UK market up by 7% from 2017. From the Government Information Service, I am General Norville. Meantime, the Department of Tourism has partnered with the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism, SIGTE and the United Nations Inter-Regional Crime and Research Institute to ensure visitors more freely and safely enjoy their experience in St. Lucia. More from Anicia Antoine. As part of the Caribbean Tourism Security Program, international experts are providing training in areas such as crisis management and risk mitigation. In St. Lucia, the collaboration has started with a three-day workshop structured to address issues faced by law enforcement and other public officials and strengthen public-private sector partnerships to promote a safer tourist destination. Just over three months ago, an initial assessment meeting was held to obtain valuable information which has formed the basis of this important workshop. It is therefore well understood that safety of a destination is of paramount importance in the visitors' choice of a destination. Tourism is highly sensitive to perceptions of danger and lack of safety and security. It is in this context that lack of safety and security and incidences of crime represent some serious threats to travel and tourism than any other negative factor. Safety and security is vital to providing a quality tourism product. More than any other economic activity, the success or failure of a tourism destination depends on being able to provide a safe and secure environment for visitors. Approximately eight destinations have benefited from a range of capacity-building interventions, including basic training on tourism security and the development of integrated security plans. The basic idea of the entire workshop we are doing here but all the workshops we are organizing within this project in different Central American and Caribbean destinations is how we can work together. Exactly how the UN, the Organization of American State, CARICOM are working together to try to put together a strategy for tourism security that can apply in different destinations. We really believe that working together at the national level is really important. So the key message for this three-day work is to be involved, to take obviously the responsibility that every office has, every private company has in terms of the tourist security and contribute to develop a better environment for tourist security, safety and security in the island. We really believe that as for many Caribbean destinations, tourism is one of the key components of the income of the country. So security is even more important obviously. Tourism is one of the main economic earners in St Lucia. The total contribution of tourism to GDP in St Lucia for 2017 was recorded at 15% and 20,000 jobs were directly supported by tourism, amounting to 15.8% of the overall workforce. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. The Trade Export Promotion Agency says demand for St Lucia agricultural commodities has increased significantly on the international market. The agency has partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to boost exports. A memorandum of understanding was recently undertaken between the two entities with the aim to increase exports by 20%. Basically what we have seen at TIPA is that a number of the term lo-hanging fruits that can be exploited within the region and internationally lies within agriculture. There is a great demand internationally and regionally for agricultural commodities. So what TIPA decided to do was to partner with the Ministry of Agriculture and set up some very ambitious goals to increase agricultural exports by 20% in the first year of the MOU. TIPA's Market Research Unit tasks with the international promotion of St Lucia products, which gathers valuable information on market demand that drives our export strategy. At TIPA, we have a Market Research Unit. That unit is charged with obtaining information basically on what is grown domestically, not only in agriculture, what is also produced domestically, what has export potential, who is ready for export, and then they also collect market information as to what the market desires. Apart from this, the client management team also does a number of market promotions outside of the country. We do trade shows, we do market visits, or we visit various countries to showcase authentic St Lucia products. Most times from these visits, we get demand for products and then this is then turned over into the clients in St Lucia to let them know this is what is demanded. TIPA has advised that small niche markets in St Lucia have the potential to expand exponentially on the international domain. In demand commodities, including traditional exports, bananas, breadfruits for the US and the UK markets, and general agricultural produce for Canada. A small niche market for us in St Lucia in the UK could be millions of dollars. So imagine going into Estonia, into Belgium, into France. So these small niche markets could transcend into very large exports for St Lucia. In more agricultural developments, a team of agro-processing specialists from Colombia are conducting a technical diagnostic mission to gather information on St Lucia's capacity in the sector. Chris Satney has the details. The initiative is part of a South-South cooperation understanding with the South American country with a view to benefit in from a Colombian model of training. Accompanied by TVET officers within the Division of Education, the Colombian specialists have conducted a number of site visits to help them gather the pertinent information they need. Education officer for TVET called for Samuel says information gathered from the mission will help further develop technical cooperation between the two countries as far as the training of personnel is concerned, the system he says will start at secondary schools with rollouts at the Stanley John Audlem, Grand Riviera and the PI secondary schools. Agro-processing involves the transformation of products that originates from agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Where you actually set up a production line where the students can actually learn the principles and practices related to agro-processing and they can then use these knowledge skills and certainly the attitudes to develop similar enterprises at their home or collectively as a cooperative or whatever. So that is how we're going to benefit our agro-processors and now we'll benefit too from technical assistance where we're going to actually have people travel from St. Louis to Colombia to actually witness for us how this thing is done. Business development and strategy Mr. Samuel says will also be part of the technical cooperation with Colombia and as such, stakeholders in agro-processing have been brought on board to ensure that that part of the sub-sector which he says is lacking receives a boost from the initiative. So we had meetings with the high echelons of the Ministry of Agriculture. We actually had a deputy director but we had also spoken to the PS and DPS in that ministry. We also spoke to the PS of the Department of Commerce and the deputy PS actually was represented at this meeting we had with the people operating at that level. We also had meetings with the training institutions. We had meetings with the trainers themselves. People were involved in agro-processing training. We had meetings with the agro-processors themselves. He says the mission will also lead to the setting up of a training facility for agro-processing in St. Lucia where it is hoped that processors of fruit products, honey, spices and chocolate on the island will benefit. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development I am Chris Satney reporting. This is NationBeat back in a moment. Think about the children How will we save them? It calls and GMOs are not the solution Use organic and join Excessive agrochemical use, additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment Join the Good Food Revolution Grow, buy and consume organic A message from Rye St. Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF Small Grants Program, UNDP Good Food Revolution Welcome back. Capacity of the Attorney General's chambers has been enhanced. This was revealed by St. Lucia's Attorney General on Tuesday as he addressed the opening ceremony of the law year 2018-2019 under the theme challenges, opportunities and resilience. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court paving the way to a modern efficient judiciary for the region. The challenges faced by the judiciary are many. However, chambers he assured understands those challenges and the current needs and stands ready to make the necessary adjustments to foster the advancement of the cause of justice. It is with some great measure of regret that it appears that every year there is the promise of proper accommodation for the court. Whilst the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court is an itinerant court it cannot be seen as a porambulator where its offices are concerned. Without it, justice may appear absent from the state and if it remains unaddressed for too long we run the risk of it becoming etched in the minds of the people that this is the new normal. The law that is for this reason that the Executive is committed towards finally erecting a structure to serve as the home of the judiciary and where citizens may come to vindicate their rights and settle their disputes in a modern way ever cognizant that the judiciary stands as the sentinels of our democracy. The Attorney General added that the country embraces the shift to e-litigation explaining that the move will be of significant benefit to St. Lucia. He said other initiatives to improve the judiciary and its service to the public are soon to come on stream with special attention to safety and security measures given the nature of the job. A number of initiatives will also come on stream as steps to improve the quality of service provided and address other issues which face the judiciary. Lawyers attach to the advice and litigation department accept their peculiar occupational hazards. However, it is lamentable when the probability of exposure is magnified by the irresponsible action of a few. The law of this phenomena had never reached my contemplation prior to my appointment and its incidence is most distressing. Council have been targeted for simply doing their jobs. This has caused us to implement measures for the security of our personnel not just council but staff as a whole. Finally, statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that there is no spike in the number of new HIV-related infections on Island which has remained in the 40s for the last three years. However, the ministry continues to encourage members of the public to know the HIV status as the infection rate among men is almost double that of women. More in this report from Glenn Simon. Acting senior medical officer for infectious diseases in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr. Gail Gajada said the number of new HIV cases have remained about the same over the past three years. From 2015 to 2017, the number of new HIV infections in St. Lucia was 46, 42 and 44 respectively. We found that there have been twice the number of men compared to women, right? So in terms of all those numbers, our goal is to reduce our numbers further. And we're hoping persons who are practice being faithful to their partner, using protection, things like that. But it's not only about that. We want persons to get tested too, okay? Because there are still persons out there who may not want to be tested, who do not want to go for testing. HIV is treated like any other chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension, where treatment and medication is provided free of charge at public health clinics. Dr. Gajada encouraged all sexually active persons to know their status by getting an HIV test, which is also free and available at the sexual and reproductive health clinics and selected wellness centers across the island. We have done a population size estimate study, so we know that we have key populations out there. We have men who have sex with men. We call them SMs. We have transactional workers. We also have other vulnerable populations like the youth and migrants, things like that. So we're encouraging everyone to come in to get tested. And like I said, it doesn't matter whether you are from St. Lucia or migrating into St. Lucia, we offer free testing and free treatment to all persons. It doesn't matter where you're from. We don't discriminate. She noted that though globally, funding for HIV has reduced, the OECS region is fortunate to have received a Global Fund grant which has allowed the region and St. Lucia to accomplish a number of significant goals. They have assisted us with many things. We have an HIV drug resistance study that is ongoing. They assisted with a population size estimate study. They recently assisted with a motivational interviewing workshop that was held last week. They have assisted with training for rapid syphilis testing and the combination test for rapid syphilis and HIV testing, which will assist with diagnosing more patients with syphilis. And what we're trying to do is reduce the transmission of syphilis from mother to child. The medical officer for infectious diseases stated that the OECS anxiously awaits the approval of a continuation grant from the Global Fund, which will allow both St. Lucia and the region to draw closer to the 1990 targets set by UN AIDS to end the AIDS epidemic. For the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Glenn Simon reporting. And that's how we end nation beat today. Harris hoping you join us on Thursday on behalf of the entire team here at the Government Information Service, I'm Richmond Felix.