 St. Lucia is positioned to have increased access to funding for the management and mitigating the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. Parliament has approved the borrowing of US$30 million from the International Development Association to finance the COVID-19 response, recovery and resilience development policy program. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Alan Shasne says the funds would go towards addressing the many challenges posed by COVID-19. The negative impact on St. Lucia's productive capacity, public and private sectors, is directly correlated with the performance of the fiscal accounts. Our fiscal space has been constrained by the low performance of central government revenue and increased public health care expenditure. This limits the extent to which policy measures can be adopted to provide adequate stimulus to cushion shocks from the current economic downturn. Mr Speaker, this policy-based loan is underpinned by prioritized structural reform measures agreed with the World Bank on the AIDA-19 Sustainable Development Financing Policy. This program supports the government's actions to recover the economy from the short-term impact of COVID-19, especially in relation to the health sector, and continue to provide relief to vulnerable households and businesses. The program also seeks to build cross-sectoral resilience through the strengthening of public sector governments and provide the impetus for private sector participation in the overall economic recovery. The COVID-19 Development Policy Program is expected to leverage government's efforts in three primary areas. Protecting lives and livelihoods in response to COVID-19, this will be achieved by continuing to focus on structural measures and interventions that will strengthen the social protection system for the most vulnerable. Two, ensuring business continuity and strengthening resilience. This component will focus on our current efforts in saving jobs as well as strengthening the support to their fishery sector through the implementation of the insurance mechanism, Caribbean Oceans and Aquaculture Sustainability Facility, COST. In relation to business continuity, additional liquidity support will be made available to medium, small and micro enterprises as we work towards economy-wide recovery. Legislative reforms, the third area, will focus on supporting reforms in the areas of public financial management, public procurement, as well as the improvements of public debt transparency and public debt management for the post-crisis recovery. With the view of saving lives and preserving livelihoods, the government of St. Lucia, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, has embarked on several initiatives, channeling significant resources in that regard. Prime Minister Hon. Shasne noted that these included initiatives identified in the Social Stabilization Program and the Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the initial health response. Some of these initiatives are expected to continue into the new fiscal year and will require significant financial outlays. The sharp increase in positive COVID-19 cases has increased the pressure on an already fragile health sector. Despite the sector benefiting from significant donor financial and technical assistance, a huge deficit still remains. The sums expanded in retrofitting and outfitting the respiratory hospital and clinics, rental of premises to serve as isolation and quarantine facilities, and the increased capacity for testing significantly impacted the government's financial resources. Mr. Speaker, the DPC will finance both capital investments as well as current expenditure in 2021-22 budget. We will not only support the containment of the spread of COVID-19 among the citizens, but will under-grid the economic recovery of our economy. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Shasne speaking in Parliament, February 23, 2021.