 The Millennium Highway and West Coast Reconstruction Project dovetails with Prime Minister Honourable Philip J. Pierre's agenda to enhance St. Lucia's public infrastructure and road networks. The Prime Minister was recently on the ground with Senior Minister responsible for infrastructure, Honourable Stevenson King and officials from the Caribbean Development Bank, the British High Commission and C.O. Williams Construction Ltd to receive an update on the status of the project. C.O. Williams Construction Ltd is the contractor for the Millennium Highway Reconstruction phase of the project which consists of approximately 11.1 km of road and associated drainage works and the construction of a new roundabout. Delays have extended completion timelines and shortened the patience of the motoring public, a concern not lost on the senior minister. The timeline early 2024 which I have not accepted have indicated that they can do better than that. I have set my own timeline and I believe it is to ensure that there is an understanding that we are expecting a more efficient process for delivery and so I have indicated that October we cannot go beyond October with this project. The contractor does not believe that it is possible to deliver in October. He believes it can be delivered in the first quarter of 2024. I am continuing to mount the pressure that we need to go into the Christmas with that road developed. The United Kingdom Government under the UK Caribbean Infrastructure Fund made available nearly EC $100 million in grant funding which is administered by the Caribbean Development Bank for the project. In addition to EC $21.6 million in loan funding from the CDB, the Government of St. Lucia has invested more than $24 million in the project. In 2020, the Government received funding approval from the CDB and construction ensued in 2021. The Ministry of Infrastructure is the executing agency for the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road Reconstruction Project. CDB Vice President of Operations, Mr. Isaac Solomon expressed confidence in the interventions implemented by the contractor to advance the project to meet its revised timelines. There is some progress, some visible progress, I think coming off the heels of a meeting we had with all parties on the margins of our annual meeting here in June. So there has been some visible progress and we are very encouraged by that. We are aware that there are still issues but we do have commitments from all parties on some key deliverables that we are expecting in the next six weeks, weather permitting and we are hoping that that would give us a better parameter to determine whether this project will finish within the revised timeline. The contractor has applied various alleviation measures to improve the commute along the Millennium Highway as construction progresses. Over the last eight months what we have seen as CEO Williams have done is to bring a new project manager on the job. We have seen some improvement, we have said over and over again we are not happy, we are not satisfied, we believe a lot more can be done but we have seen some progress taking place. We have seen some changes made in the whole management and workforce etc etc. So in terms of the operational side we have seen some attempts to make good on the weakness of the organization. Approximately 82,000 residents will benefit from shorter travel times between the capital city and westerly communities along the south coast of the island. Climate adaptive construction methods will increase resilience against hurricanes and reduce the risk of flooding and landslides along the project route. Office of the Prime Minister