 The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, NCPC, completed the first of three rounds of specialized training to improve productivity and drive economic growth. The Enhancing Business Productivity Training Program, designed by the NCPC specifically targets medium, small and micro enterprises, MSMEs. Lisa Floramontout, director of the NCPC, emphasized that the training program highlights the importance of data collection for effective decision-making. While introducing participants to the Pro Tool, the NCPC's Productivity Measuring Tool, which promotes a culture of continuous improvement for business success. At the NCPC, we have introduced the Pro Tool. It is a web-based analytical tool that your business can use to measure your productivity levels and it provides recommendations on areas of witnesses or remedial actions that you can take for enhancing your productivity. The Community Tourism Agency, CTA, which recently partnered with the NCPC via a memorandum of understanding, encourages members to take full advantage of the Enhancing Business Productivity Training and the impact it can have on the success of their businesses. I really thought our partners can benefit from such an important tool that actually measures your productivity when it comes to your input, when it comes to work and of course what do you expect out of it. Funding this training program is the Caribbean Digital Transformation Project, whose project coordinator, Francilia Solomon, said the project has collaborated with the NCPC on similar ventures such as improving the sales productivity of vendors via the use of point-of-sale machines and ICT training. As we know, micro-medium and small enterprises is a live blood of any economy, especially here in St. Lucia and irrespective of your small size you make a very big impact on the economy. The training program, facilitated by Betty Comby of Moz Inc. and a team of regional trainers experienced in business development, offers participants hands-on practical exercises in focus areas such as data collection and analysis, planning for equity and establishing a framework for enhancing business productivity. We were expecting also during this training session that you're going to be equipped to be able to identify the productivity gaps in your particular business and last of all we want to ensure that when you leave here, you leave here and you understand the importance of promoting a culture of continuous improvement in your business. Participants articulated the value they received from the training program. It would provide the necessary skills and expertise to make better decisions within the business. Getting to know your customers' expectations, it really helps you in understanding what the customers are requesting from you. Now I am equipped enough to go out there and share that information. The amount of information that was shared here today pretty much would help in any part of the business, would help you effectively and help you improve your consistency of the business. The training incorporated on location visits to the individual businesses by the facilitator and a certificate of completion was presented to the successful participants. An open call has already gone out for the next cohort for the Enhancing Business Productivity Training. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.