 economic disruptions, adversely disadvantaged poor and low-income households. The COVID-19 pandemic financially destabilized low-income households and made it more difficult to maintain domestic utilities, including broadband internet and Wi-Fi connectivity, landline communications and cable television services. Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre and the Cabinet of Ministers remain committed to poverty reduction and ensuring vulnerable households have equitable access to important commercial services. Honoring his pledge to put people first, the government of St. Lucia led by Hon. Pierre has successfully leveraged its relationship with telecommunications provider and key corporate partner Flow to provide vulnerable households with reliable and low-cost ICT services through its home communications relief bundle. So this 5000 households and this program this morning is just part of the government's commitment to putting people first and the government's commitment to helping people of lesser means. The government is not made up of men and women who were in the higher income groups and we sang the public of St. Lucia for the opportunity given to represent them and our job and my commitment as Prime Minister is to improve the quality of life of the people of St. Lucia and that gesture with the with the support of Flow who have been with us in St. Lucia for quite a while, Flow has come in different names, came in wireless, what else? Came in wireless, Lyme and now it's Flow but they have been consistent in the supply of service to St. Lucia and I'm happy with what they are doing now and again on behalf of the government of St. Lucia I want to thank them and say to the senior minister he did tell me that he would have pushed a little bit and he succeeded that's why we're all dressed in blue So thank you very much Flow. The official signing ceremony to initiate Flow's Home Communications Relief Bundle was held on July 15th The Home Communications Relief Bundle will benefit up to 5,000 homes and families throughout the island Speaking on behalf of country manager Chris Williams commercial manager Anselm Mathraer lauded the numerous socioeconomic benefits that can be derived from the Flow Home Communications Relief Bundle To show you today caps an almost three-year journey and that's that's an event he would not have wanted to miss Notwithstanding the message I bring on his behalf is one of tremendous pride a deep sense of satisfaction and finally being able to get this initiative approved and implemented and an abundance of hope because of the amazing possibilities that will come from awakening and unlocking the academic and creative potential of the children and the families who didn't have readily available internet access before Research conducted in 33 OECD countries by Erickson most of you would know leading global ICT provider after the little the world's oldest management consulting firm and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden confirm that broadband availability and speeds are strong drivers in an economy I think we all know that the city quantifies the isolated impact of broadband speed showing that increasing the broadband speed for an economy can increase the GDP by up to 0.3% the report also concluded that for every 10% 10 percentage point increase sorry in broadband penetration GDP increases can be as high as 1% senior minister with responsibility for telecommunications Honourable Stevenson King and his team successfully negotiated faster broadband speeds without increasing the initial $20 monthly cost of the flow home communications relief bundle flow in response to the numerous challenges of connectivity has stepped to the plate and presented a proposal to the government for consideration government accepted what flow has proposed which makes provisions for connectivity up to 5000 households at a reasonable price of $20 we were successfully negotiating a higher speed which I consider to be a reasonably good compromise and I should state that when the original proposal was presented it was five megabits per second today you heard Mr. Mathre indicate that it has been increased to 15 megabits and this is certainly an achievement and Prime Minister did promise you that by the time the negotiations over I'm hoping that we can get to 15 and flow has flowed and delivered