 Coming to you from our GIS studios, I am Anitya Antoine and this is your Midday News Brief. The Ministry of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries in its quest to bolster the island's tourism industry is extending its expertise to the taxi sector. Minister for Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries, Honourable Dominic Fede indicated that a lot of opportunities go unexplored due to stakeholders not taking advantage of available technology advances. The initiative, according to him, will be very beneficial not only to enhance St. Lucia's tourism product but also to empower business owners, especially those in the sphere of village tourism. Honourable Fede explained that one such initiative will provide the kind of assistance needed by these owners to give their businesses the competitive edge. As World Know Tobacco Day approaches, global partners are bringing attention to the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second hand smoke exposure while seeking to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced killing more than 7 million people a year. More than 6 million of those deaths are as a result of direct tobacco use while around 890,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second hand smoke. The Ministry of Health and Wellness recently launched its campaign for World Know Tobacco Day 2019 in partnership with the National Commission on Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases to bring attention to the issues of tobacco use in St. Lucia. This year's campaign is significant for the National Commission on Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases as it seeks to target the youth. The World Health Organization recommends that governments and communities prioritise tobacco control in order to achieve sustainable development goals target for one-third reduction in noncommunicable disease premature mortality by 2030. The chair of the National Commission on Chronic NCDs Dr. Owen Gabriel said the most effective measure to improve lung health is to reduce tobacco use and second hand smoke exposure, however the potential of tobacco control for improving lung health is highly underestimated. World Know Tobacco Day will be observed on May 31, 2019 under the theme tobacco and lung health. The Registry of the Supreme Court St. Lucia in collaboration with Compete Caribbean is campaigning for the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, on mediation as the preference for resolving conflict. As such, a campaign has been launched which seeks to increase the availability of and access to mediation services under the legislative framework in St. Lucia. Chartered Accountant and Trained Mediator Andrea St. Rose says that an environment where there is a process in place for settlement of disputes is very good for business. The campaign will allow for engagement with SMEs, including manufacturers, farmers, service providers and other business owners about how mediation services can be made more accessible. This has been your media news brief, thank you for watching.