 On November 16th, Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre, an ambassador of the European Union to Barberas and the Eastern Caribbean states, Malgotata Wazeluska, finalized the terms of an easy $16.8 million grant from the European Union to support the Generation of Employment through Private Sector Development Project, or GEPSET. The GEPSET project is a comprehensive and integrated skills training system that provides unemployed youth and vulnerable groups with access to occupational training programs, facilitated by the St. Lucia Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. We are going to be training young St. Lucia's to give them the necessary skills so that they can produce. Because the problem of unemployment is a scourge that affects all of us. It doesn't matter if we leave one point in St. Lucia and go and live somewhere else. That scourge is going to follow us. The scourge of social upheaval and the problems of crime will follow us. If we do not find a way, if we do not find a way to engage our young people, find a way to get them meaningfully employed. The EU grant will be used to provide stipends for participants and also make available seed capital to trainees who have attained national Caribbean vocational qualifications under the GEPSET project and wish to pursue a micro and or small to medium scale business venture. The EU funding will also be used to establish a workforce development center in the islands south. We are very excited to join forces with the government of St. Lucia in support of the reform of the Tiva landscape in the country. Given the vulnerabilities and current fragility, St. Lucia is actually continually exposed to the improved alignment of education and training and exposure to experience in the labour market. Seven local institutions who provide occupational training programs namely the St. Arthur Lewis Community College, Monroe College, the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association Training Academy, the National Skills Development Center, the Center for Adolescent Renewal and Education and the School of Art and Design have agreed to train at least 600 St. Lucia enlisted in the GEPSET project. To this end, the Department of Economic Development and representatives of the respective occupational training institutions have signed a memorandum of understanding to place each of the 600 GEPSET participants in a private sector-based job training program for a minimum of three months. The EU grant of $16.8 million will also support related initiatives in the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Commerce and the St. Lucia Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. The Office of the National Authorizing Officer is the implementation agency spearheading the GEPSET project. From the Office of the Prime Minister, Rehani Isidou.