 Thank you Constable Griffith. Please remain standing as we welcome Captain Woodster Lewis of Louis of the Salvation Army representing the St. Lucia Christian Council who will deliver the prayer. Let us pray. Heavenly Father we come before you today with heart full of gratitude and hope as we gather to pray for the ceremony and the successful launch of the ship. Dear God we seek your divine intervention and blessings upon Sidi Ma and the ongoing effort to mitigate and respond to disasters in the Caribbean region. Dear God we ask you for your grace and strength to be with the Sidi Ma teams for first responders and volunteers who tirelessly work to provide aid, relief and support in time of crisis. God grant them wisdom, resilience and compassion as they respond to emergencies, bringing hope to those affected by natural disaster. May they be guided by your wisdom and protected from harm as they navigate difficulties they encounter. Heavenly Father we also pray for the people in the Caribbean who have been affected by the disasters. Bring comfort to those who have lost their loved ones, home or lively woods. Grant them courage, patience and the resources they need to rebuild the life and the communities. Father God may defy solace in your love and experience the support and solidarity of others during the time of need. Father God we acknowledge that the seas can be treacherous and unpredictable but we trust in your providence and ask for your guidance and protection as this ship embark on its journey. May the vessel be studied well equipped and manned by skill individual who will navigate the water with wisdom and expertise. Surround them with your divine light, shielding them from harm and ensuring the safe passage from pot to pot. Finally the God we ask for your blessing upon the ship's crew, passengers and all who will be benefitted from its purpose. May it will be a vessel of peace, progress and unity. For stirring cooperation, trade and goodwill among nations, guide its journey and may it be a beacon of hope and prosperity in the world. The God may your blessing be upon the government of St. Lucia and the council of ministers. Lead and direct them in all the future endeavors in your infinite wisdom and compassion. Hear our prayer as we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you Captain Louis. Ladies and gentlemen you may be seated. Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre, President of the Senate Hon. Alvina Reynolds, Former Governor-General Her Excellency Dame Poelette-Louise, Minister for Sustainable Development and Chairman of the Sedema Council of Ministers Hon. Sean Edward, Members of the Cabinet of St. Lucia, Members of Parliament, Ministers and Heads of Delegations of Sedema Member States, Executive Director of Sedema Miss Elizabeth Riley, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr. Michael Court, CEO of Global Support and Development, GSD, Delegates to the 13th Sedema Council Meeting, Officials of Sedema, Officials of GSD, Captain Glenn Dalby and crew of the MV Dawn, Ladies and Gentlemen, People of our Caribbean nations viewing this podcast through the courtesies of UETV. Good evening. Welcome to the opening ceremony of the 13th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, Sedema. This evening is one which is expected to further enlighten us on the operations of Sedema, highlight the invaluable nature of the collaboration as well as provide a surprise or two. To commence our programme for this evening I would like to invite the Hon. Sean Edward, Chairman of Sedema to the lectern to deliver the welcome remarks. Thank you very much, Keeba. Keeba is a former student of mine and I claim my students everywhere I go. With me to adopt the protocol that has already been established but I must acknowledge the presence of the Hon. Prime Minister, Hon. Philip J. Pierre, Cabinet colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to St. Lucia. I extend a warm welcome to all delegates to the 13th meeting of the Council of Ministers and our colleagues from Global Support and Development who have partnered us in this evening's event. This is the first face-to-face meeting of the Council of Ministers since the year 2019 when the Council met in Tucson-Cacos, a break occasioned by the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic. This 13th meeting of the Council of Ministers takes place on the heels of the impact of Tropical Storm Bread on St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Barbados and reminds us of the complex multi-hazard environment in which our countries exist and the existential threat of climate change. Impacts to the agricultural sector are still being assessed. However, the devastation to the banana crop is already evident and it has already disrupted lives and livelihoods. Within my own Ministry of Education, external CAPE examinations had to be postponed while a few school buildings were damaged. The antecedent conditions created by this early season cyclonic event on the heels of dry conditions could potentially have resulted in more significant impacts if forecast rainfall accumulations materialized. We are thankful that this event was ably managed by national disaster offices across the region. This and other recent events underscored the importance of building resilience to hazard impacts through comprehensive disaster management. It reinforces that strategies focus on building resilience at the sectoral level is as important today as it was when first adopted in the year 2001. I wish to salute the national disaster coordinators of the SIDIMA system and the SIDIMA Coordinating Unit team for all the work that they do. It is also appropriate for me to signal that our own Miss Maria Mada, Acting Director of the National Emergency Management Organization will shortly be retiring from the public service and I take the opportunity to thank her for her valuable contribution to the SIDIMA system. This month marks the conclusion of the first year of our period as Chairman of the SIDIMA and that is St Lucia. We've assumed the chair just for one year and with one year to go I must say I am extremely pleased and happy with the support that we've been able to receive from the other member territories of the SIDIMA. A juncture where we as a council of ministers have the opportunity to shape a sustainable future for the SIDIMA. As it relates to human resource capacity and financing among other aspects of the agency's operations. These are waiting matters and our responsibility as a council of ministers must be one where we give adequate attention to the matters of human resource management and financing. The SIDIMA is castrapped and every month I am inundated with calls, emails and letters from the Executive Director asking me to nudge my Prime Minister and at times nudge my colleagues regionally to get them to honour their commitments to the agency by way of making payments of their dues. I once again welcome you to St Lucia and I look forward to guiding us through the agenda that has been set for tomorrow. There is a lot to be discussed tomorrow and I'm hoping that you have come prepared to make decisions that will impact the SIDIMA in a very positive way and make it a more viable agency than it has been in recent times. At this point in time I want to call on Ms Maria Meda, the Acting Executive Director of NIMO, to receive a token and I will ask the Honourable Prime Minister, the Honourable Philip J.P., to come forward to present Ms Meda with a token of appreciation for her contribution to disaster management in St Lucia and by extension the region. I would like to ask the Honourable Minister and Chairman of SIDIMA to return to the stage as we welcome a presentation to him on behalf of SIDIMA by Ms Yvette Goddard, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Information in Barbados. Thank you, Mr Chairman and Ms Goddard. Let us now welcome Ms Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency for brief remarks. Thank you, Madam MC. Allow me also to adopt the protocol that has been established. Honourable Prime Minister, please accept the heartfelt thanks to the Government of St Lucia for its ready agreement to host the 13th meeting of the Council of Ministers of SIDIMA. We also want to thank you for the excellent hosting arrangements. Prime Minister Peir, I must acknowledge the strong support provided by the Government of St Lucia to SIDIMA, both in the role as CARICOM quasi-cabinet lead with responsibility for sustainable development, including disaster management, and through the leadership of the Honourable Sean Edward. The waters have been rough, literally and figuratively. And I personally thank you and our Chair for your staunch support in navigating them. The vulnerability of our region to complex multi-hazards and the concomitant loss and damage remains at the forefront as we gather for Council 2023. Our hazard landscape is changing. So too is our operational environment. Momentum is building towards a wave of change in international development financing, which should increase financial flows to support our work, and the 2024 International Conference on Small Island Developing States provides a space to amplify our collective voice. And so, this 13th meeting of the Council in 2023 takes place at a critical juncture. To better position SIDIMA in September of 2022, the Council of Ministers approved the transformative strategic plan for 2022 to 2027. It seeks to accelerate the development of comprehensive disaster management capacity in our participating states, to build the next-level regional response mechanism, to accelerate recovery and position SIDIMA for now and for the future. The results of the mid-term review of the CDM strategy will stare implementation. But this shared ambition will only be achieved if the SIDIMA system, that is the Coordinating Unit and its participating states, execute their roles and responsibilities as per the agreement established in SIDIMA at both the technical and political levels. This not only requires strong leadership and timely decision-making by the Ministerial Council, but also consistency in investment in and financing, not only of SIDIMA, but other key regional institutions which play critical roles in the delivery of our mandate. In this regard, I wish to acknowledge my colleagues from CARICOM Impacts, CIMH, CARFA, the RSS and UWI who travelled to St. Lucia for this event. Thank you very much. As a system, we need to critically examine our human capacity for delivery. National disaster offices need to be appropriately structured and resourced with appropriate technically skilled staff. Of importance as well, there must be a commitment to the implementation of approved country work programmes and barriers to implementation must be treated with urgency. At last year's Council, SIDIMA cautioned that the pace of implementation has to be quickened if we were not to lose already secured financial resources. This is unfortunately coming to fruition. In closing, as Executive Director of SIDIMA, I wish to acknowledge the sterling contribution of our development partners across the region, some of whom are with us this evening. I close here by publicly recognising the SIDIMA Coordinating Unit team. For their sustained dedication. Team, you are seen and you are valued. I look forward to robust dialogue at the 13th meeting of the Council tomorrow and to the decisions which will move us forward. I thank you. Thank you, Miss Riley. Ladies and gentlemen, to deliver the feature address for this evening, please welcome the Honourable Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister of St. Lucia. Thank you very much, Madam Secretary of Ceremonies. After listening to the Minister and Miss Riley, I don't know. I'm not sure what feature my address will be. Let me start on a rather solemn note. As you know, the former Prime Minister of Barbados, Lloyd, Oskine Sandiford passed away on Monday, June 26. So Lloyd, as Prime Minister of Barbados, proposed the establishment of a regional coordination mechanism to address disasters in the region. This idea led to the establishment of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency, CDERA, which transitioned to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, CDEMA. I invite you to stand for a minute in silence. Thank you. Let me recognize the Minister for Education, Sustainable Development, Vocational Training, and many other things. The Honourable Sean Edwards, the President of the Senate, Sister Alvina Reynolds, Miss Elizabeth Riley, other Ministers from our Caribbean States, members of the Cabinet of St. Lucia, the Minister for Health, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, the Cabinet Secretary. Let me recognize our colleagues in IMPACS and CAFA. Welcome to St. Lucia. It's my privilege and my honour to welcome you here, particularly to give an address on a boat, on a ship. It's the first time in my long years in politics that I've had the privilege to open a meeting on a ship. And if I were sure the meeting would have ended up in the cruise, I might have said to the Minister of Sustainable Development, I will chair the meeting. I take this time and this opportunity to express my most profound appreciation to our colleagues from Global Support and Development, GSD. On behalf of the Council of Ministers, for the support GSD has provided to these proceedings. As you are aware, CDMEN GSD have just concluded the signature of a memorandum of understanding which will guide your collaboration in various areas related to disaster preparedness, response and early recovery. St. Lucia will also directly benefit from this collaboration as one of the target countries of the GSD supports. This engagement of GSD underscores the importance of building new partnerships and strengthening existing ones as we advance the sustainable development of our region in the face of the very challenging and complex multi-hazard environment, which is our reality as Caribbean nations. Having said this, I also want to express our thanks to the long-standing partners of CDEMA, including the EU, the Global Affairs of Canada, GAC, the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, and UK Foreign Encore Development Office, UNFCDO, the World Bank, the CDB, Jaika and the newer partners like the Government of Norway. I thank you very much for your contribution to CDEMA. For the past three years, the region has evidently the devastating impacts of climate change in terms of the increasing frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones. We experience back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes, UMA and MARIA, impacting in 2017, followed by the destructive hurricane Dorian in 2019. The emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020 was followed in 2021 by the eruption of La Soufière, Volcano, Inc., Vents and the Grenadines. Another, there were a steady earthquake in Haiti and flooding other weather-related events across the region. Haiti experienced yet another earthquake just earlier this month. Even though this year's hurricane season is predicted to be averaged, Celusia is already experiencing serious impacts in some of our communities due to the passage of tropical storm breaths. And you heard from the Minister the impact of tropical storm breaths on our island. And these are what you heard about. From October last year to December, rain fell in Celusia almost every day. And that and the hurricane affected people. It affected crops and these things are not heard of. They never make the news. What makes the news are the hurricanes and the tropical storms. But we have weather-related events in Celusia that cause damage, particularly damage to property and particularly the properties of people who are less privileged. So the impact of climate change is real. And if there was a need for SEDEMA, if there was a need for joint action, the time is now. Because as the scientists see, it will only get worse as evidence by breadth beginning starting is a full stand for a long time that in June we've had some event, some weather event. So the need for SEDEMA is even greater and the need for mitigation and adaptation is even greater. These events highlight the importance of our renewed regional focus on resilience and recovery. The objectives of which are summarized in the building a Caribbean pathway for disaster resilience in the Caribbean. Which in the Caribbean, a document which was developed in 2018 and the Caribbean Resilience Recovery Facility CRRF which was launched in 2021. This new level of complex risks requires an enhanced level of preparedness and response capability as SEDEMA has included as one of its strategic objectives in its 2022-2027 strategic plan. There can be no doubt as to the continued relevance of SEDEMA as the agency mandated by the Caribbean community to provide leadership to the participating states on disaster risk management. The theme at SEDEMA continues to labor hard to seek comprehensive disaster management fully integrated into our national level development policies, plans and programs and I want to thank them and recognize them for that effort. Despite its efforts, the SEDEMA unit continues to struggle to finance its administrative requirements to undertake its mandate. It's a continuous struggle. This includes the optimal staffing of the agency through the coordinating unit. Though the coordinating unit is on the path to developing a more sustainable financing mechanism, the activities to put this in place will first require a decision and thereafter another two to three years to be completed. In this regard, I strongly encourage you to advocate in your respective countries for the payment of outstanding contributions to SEDEMA so that it can continue this important work on behalf of our countries. I want to ask the ministers here to do like the minister of sustainable development. Every morning in the cabinet, he has to see me to ensure that I pay my dues to SEDEMA. So the minister from Dominica can start to see him. Make sure all of you remain your prime minister and all the other ministers here so that the contributions to SEDEMA are overdue and we really need it. I know. That's what I said, Dominica. In the past year, the coordinating unit has led the midterm review of the CDM strategy with the support of a consultant as a means of measuring the extent to which the intended results are being achieved. The midterm review has found that the CDM strategy remains highly relevant and supports the advancement of international, regional and national development priorities in disaster reduction. It is also determined that the CDM strategy is highly recognized and valued by the participating states and partners alike as the overarching framework and the basis for coordination and collaboration to advance DRM and resilience across the region. The review has reported that though the SEDEMA CO has mobilized and managed financial resources, these are far from adequate for implementing the CDM strategy. This finding underscores the importance of leveraging the ongoing loss and damage fund discussions within the conference of Barton's Corp of the UNFCCC and examining modalities of global financial support so that SEDEMA and other vision institutions are direct beneficiaries and conduits for financing. Further, the midterm review has found that while SEDEMA co-intern units embrace a results-based management RBM approach to the planning, implementation and monitoring of the CDM strategy, it remains difficult to access the performance of the strategy due to challenges including data collection and reporting. The midterm review has made several recommendations for addressing the issues that have been identified. These, I'm sure, will be discussed at your meeting. As I end, I want to thank the partners, I want to thank the volunteers in the various islands that go out sometimes putting their life at risk to help people in need, the volunteers. They do so without any money. I want to thank them. I also want to thank impacts and cover units that assist us and also in a special way the RSS, not only for coming to the head nurse in St. Lucia but making their plans available to us at short notice. I want to thank them for that. Colleagues, I want to express my thanks for you joining us in St. Lucia and I wish you a productive meeting and I look forward to at some point sharing a cruise on this vessel. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. I would actually like you to remain standing as I call upon the Executive Director of SIDIMA, Ms. Elizabeth Riley, for a presentation of a gift to Prime Minister Peir. Thank you, Ms. Riley, Mr. Prime Minister. We still have another for you. I would like to invite Dr. Mike Court, CEO of GSD to present a gift to Prime Minister Peir. Thank you, Dr. Court, and thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. At this point in the program, we have a cultural presentation by a talented musician. Please welcome Mr. Shakeen Naeem Afro Lubin. Thank you, Mr. Lubin. We have now come to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between GSD and SIDIMA, and I'd like to call upon our signatories, Dr. Michael Court, CEO of GSD and Ms. Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director of SIDIMA. Thank you, Dr. Court and Ms. Elizabeth Riley. I would now like to welcome the CEO of GSD, Dr. Michael Court, for brief remarks. Good evening. I would rock that as a locally led organisation that looks to respond to the requests of our partners that, Mr. Prime Minister, we will do our very best to get you on a cruise at some point. Mr. Prime Minister of St. Lucia, the most honourable, Philip J. Pierre, former Governor-General of St. Lucia, her Excellency, Dame Peir Ledes, Lausie, President of the Senate, the Honourable Alina Reynolds, Minister for St. Louis Development and Chairman of SIDIMA, the Honourable Sean Edwards, members of the Cabinet of St. Lucia, members of Parliament, ministers and heads of delegations of SIDIMA member states, SIDIMA Executive Director, Ms. Elizabeth Riley, SIDIMA Deputy Director, Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, members of the Diplomatic Corps, delegates to the 13th SIDIMA Council meeting, heads of the regional institutions and people of the Caribbean nations. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. It is my incredibly great pleasure, as the Chief Executive Officer of Global Support and Development, to welcome you all aboard the humanitarian vessel MV Dawn. On behalf of GSD, I'd like to start by expressing how grateful we are as an organisation to be able to support this annual meeting of the ministers of SIDIMA. SIDIMA's critical role in comprehensive disaster management and fostering collaboration nurtures unity amongst Caribbean nations. Through its unwavering support and commitment to disastrous reduction, preparedness and response and recovery, SIDIMA has laid a robust foundation for resiliency throughout the region. I also want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude and my personal admiration to Elizabeth Riley, the Executive Director of SIDIMA. Liz, thank you, and to your incredibly hardworking team for the invaluable contributions to improving disaster resiliency and response across the region. Thank you so much. GSD is a humanitarian organisation. Our mission is to rapidly respond to disasters in collaboration with communities at risk for natural disasters and to support them to prepare for future disasters. Like SIDIMA, we too envisage a future where every Caribbean community can successfully respond to whatever they may face. It's a shared vision and a shared mission. The foundation of GSD's work lies in partnerships and collaboration. By working alongside local organisations, we seek to understand and address gaps and form innovative approaches that complement existing systems rather than compete. Comprehensive disaster management is a team sport. No single organisation can confront the multi-faceted challenges posed by disasters alone. It is through partnerships that we can combine our strengths, our expertise and resources, exponentially increasing all our capacity to respond swiftly and efficiently and better support communities for their preparedness and resiliency. The partnership between GSD and SIDIMA solidified tonight by the signing of this memorandum of understanding acknowledges our shared commitment. GSD, with our organisations, diverse humanitarian and technical response expertise, is proud to enter this collaborative journey to complement and amplify SIDIMA's and the Member States vision of a comprehensive disaster risk management. I am humbled by the tremendous opportunity this partnership brings, our organisation. And together, we will facilitate the sharing of knowledge, best practices, innovative solutions and enabling our organisations to leverage each other's strengths and to positively impact the communities that I know we are committed to serving. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Dr. Court. At this point, we will witness the exchange of gifts between Dr. Court and Ms. Riley. Please welcome Ms. Riley and Dr. Court once more. Ms. Riley will now present Dr. Court with a gift on behalf of SIDIMA. Thank you, Dr. Court. Thank you, Ms. Riley. We have come to yet another momentous point in this evening's proceedings, the cutting of the ribbon, to officially launch the MVDON. I'd like to call upon the members of the official party, Hon. Philip G. Pierre, Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Dr. Michael Court, CEO of GSD, the Hon. Sean Edward, Chairman of SIDIMA, Ms. Elizabeth Riley, Hon. Kesta Craig, Deputy Executive Director of SIDIMA. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. At this point, I would like to invite Ms. Elizabeth Riley to provide a response to Dr. Court. Thank you very much, Madam MC. Hon. Prime Minister, again, distinguished colleagues. First, I want to thank the Government of St. Lucia for graciously agreeing to host this signing ceremony for the launch of the humanitarian vessel MVDON in the Caribbean. I also wish to thank Dr. Mike Hort, Mike, Ms. Megan Lopez, GSD's Chief Strategy Officer, and I have to say that this gentleman and lady have become my friends, so it's been really great working with you. And I want to also thank the excellent team of GSD for facilitating the opportunity to host this ceremony on board the MVDON. It is with excitement and expectancy that SIDIMA embarks on this historic partnership with GSD. I know that my colleagues from the SIDIMA Coordinating Unit, from the participating states who are here, and our regional colleagues with whom we met today share this optimism. Strong-lasting partnerships are characterized by a shared vision, common operational philosophy and a commitment to partnership. GSD and SIDIMA are well aligned strategically with a focus on people and making the lives of people better. Our operational philosophies adopt postures of support and humility in the delivery of that support. In the case of SIDIMA, supporting the building of the capacity of our states to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of multi-hazards through comprehensive disaster management. The GSD approach of locally led support and support to existing mechanisms creates the perfect opportunity for GSD to be integrated into and to support the regional response mechanism, which as you know, is our unique regional mechanism developed to provide a coordinated response to participating states in the event of a significant impact. It is anticipated that the GDON will have significant potential to strengthen the relief management, logistics, national and regional exercises, including exercise synergy, the flagship exercise of SIDIMA. Both organizations also target building strong relationships as a basis for partnership. Creating spaces and facilitating connections is an important part of what we do at SIDIMA. We bring to the table over three decades of collaboration with the national disaster mechanisms in our participating states, as well as with regional and international partners that have brought into the implementation of the comprehensive disaster management strategy in our region. Thus, signing this memorandum of understanding between our two organizations symbolizes a partnership that we believe will lead to a strengthened capacity for disaster management in the region, and new initiatives that produce better outcomes to impacted participating states in the years ahead. As we go forward therefore, I anticipate that the openness of communication and the building of mutual trust and friendship will continue to deepen. I thank you. Thank you, Ms. Riley. At this point we have an official photograph that we would like members of the official party to partake in. After which, we will hear the voter thanks from Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig. Members of the official party, the Honourable Philip J. Pierre, Dr. Michael Court of GSD, Chairman of SIDIMA, Ms. Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director Chairman of SIDIMA, the Honourable Sean Edward, Executive Director of SIDIMA and Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig. Thank you, Madam Chair. Honourable Prime Minister, permit me to on all protocol previously established. Thank you very much, sir. On behalf of the SIDIMA and the planning teams of the Government of St. Lucia and Global Support Development, I would like to first extend my warmest thanks to all of you for attending this special event and making it a success. This evening's ceremony marks the culmination of three important events in the region, merged in one special occasion. These events are the official opening ceremony of the 13th meeting of the Council of Ministers of SIDIMA, the signing of the memorandum of understanding between SIDIMA and our international partner, GSD and the launch of this massive vessel, MVDON. We believe that this vessel will strengthen the disastrous management system in the region and more specifically support our participating states to prepare for, respond to and recover from the impacts of multiple hazards. I wish to thank the Government of St. Lucia led by the honourable Prime Minister Pierre for so readily agreeing to host the 13th meeting of the Council of Ministers and to say thank you sir. Thank you for your strong leadership. I also wish to thank you for hosting us with your presence and for delivering the feature address which sets the stage for what is expected to be a productive meeting of the Council. To the honourable Sean Edwards, Chairman of SIDIMA. I also wish to thank you for your warm welcome remarks and to acknowledge your continued guidance and full support to the work system in the enhancement of our relationships with our regional and international donors and partners. A special thanks to Dr. Michael Court and his lovely team from GSD for allowing us to use this vessel, the MVDON for hosting tonight's opening ceremony. The relationship between GSD and SIDIMA which commenced over a year ago can only grow stronger because of our alignment and complementary operational philosophies. I would also like to extend a profound thanks to our own Executive Director Ms. Elizabeth Riley for bringing brief remarks but more importantly for her sterling leadership and vision in bringing new international partners such as GSD to help enhance the regional mechanism. I want to thank Captain Louis of the Salvation Army for the evening's invocation and Mr. Lubin for providing the musical performance in the form of your steel pan rendition. Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to recognize the cooperation with UBTV in working with SIDIMA in making use of our MOU to assist in live broadcast of this evening's ceremony across the region particularly across our 19 participating states. And to the MC Ms. Taliam, thank you for the kind of way in which you have conducted this evening proceedings. Once again, thank you all who have been involved at every level. Thank you.