 Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to support the passage of the Money Laundering Prevention Amendment Bill 2023. Mr. Speaker, this bill, as well as the next bill on the other paper, the Money Services Business Bill, emanate from recommendations coming out of St. Lucia's Mutual Evaluation Report conducted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force to strengthen anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures. Mr. Speaker, St. Lucia has established the National Anti-Money Laundering Oversight Committee as Prime Minister indicated, known as NAMLOC, to strengthen the capacity of the country to combat money laundering, terrorists, and proliferation financing. In this regard, one of the mandates of NAMLOC is to review St. Lucia's legislative framework in relation to money laundering and propose the necessary amendments to existing legislation, and in some cases, the enactment of new legislation, Mr. Speaker, to close gaps in our legislative framework. Mr. Speaker, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force ensures that member states like St. Lucia comply with the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, a body established by the G8 countries in 1989. These guidelines are agreed international guidelines to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The 40 recommendations provide best practices for a number of areas and entities in this country. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force conducts peer reviews of member countries called mutual evaluations. St. Lucia received its mutual evaluation report in January of 2021. This report summarizes the AML-CFT measures in place as at the date of the on-site visit in September 2019. In particular, this report identified the shortcomings in St. Lucia as it relates to anti-money laundering, counterterrorism, and proliferation financing, and submitted 40 recommendations in that regard. In this regard, Mr. Speaker, NAMLOK has been established as the oversight committee to implement the recommendations coming out of the mutual evaluation report. NAMLOK is an intersectoral committee established by Cabinet to actively monitor and mitigate the risk posed to the various sectors within St. Lucia by money laundering, terrorists, and proliferation financing. St. Lucia is currently under the rating of enhanced follow-up, and NAMLOK is working assiduously to apply for a re-rating of St. Lucia towards the end of the year to be removed from enhanced follow-up. St. Lucia has been cited as falling short on some of the 40 standard set-up by the Financial Action Task Force and was partially compliant in 28th and non-compliant in 8th of the standards. One recommendation, Mr. Speaker, coming out of the report is that St. Lucia must be able to sufficiently identify its money laundering and terrorist financing risk, and to allocate sufficient resources in those areas. It is to be noted, Mr. Speaker, that though compliance to the FATF standard is voluntary, the economic ramifications for deliberate non-compliance can be catastrophic with countries facing being either gray or blacklisted or even losing corresponding banking privileges as articulated by Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. The amendment to the Money Laundering Prevention Act and the Money Services Business Act will contribute to the suite of measures required by St. Lucia to close the gaps identified in the Mutual Evaluation Report and to support St. Lucia's application to be removed from enhanced follow-up. I would therefore like to fully support the passage of the Money Laundering Prevention Bill, Mr. Speaker, so that St. Lucia can address certain deficiencies to avoid being graylisted or blacklisted to suffer the consequences that we have seen before. And all the time we have to deal with certain issues, notwithstanding the external shocks that we are still trying to reel from. So, Mr. Speaker, it is an attempt for us to be compliant to create an improved framework for St. Lucia not to be graylisted or blacklisted. I yield the floor, Mr. Speaker.