 Friends, fellows, and lutions, and credit union cooperators on the occasion of International Credit Union Day 2022. First, please join me, as we thank the Most High for his blessings and for daily working with us to become instruments of peace. As we pray the credit union prayer by St. Francis of Assisi. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Whether it's hatred, let me so love. Whether it's injury, pardon. Whether it's doubt, faith. Whether it's darkness, light. And whether it's sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Today, St. Lucia joins 86,451 credit unions in six continents in 118 countries worldwide, in commemorating the 74th anniversary of International Credit Union Day under the theme, empower your financial future with a credit union. International Credit Union Day was first celebrated in 1948 to raise global awareness for the credit union movement. It gives credit unions worldwide a chance to celebrate and spotlight the achievements of the credit union cooperative model. This year's film is intended to reach some 1.4 billion people who remain unbanked. Credit unions truly have the perfect model to empower their financial future. Fellow St. Lucia, we are part of this 1.4 billion. Hence, it is also my mirrored message today to urge all St. Lucia's who are not yet a member of a credit union cooperative to get acquainted with the advantages of a credit union and the cooperative business model in general. Credit union leaders, I also urge you to seek out collective ways, even with sister non-credit union cooperatives, to get more people to understand the important role that credit unions play in our community. The message for this year urges credit union leaders, employees, and members to encourage someone within their lives and communities to reach out to a credit union for help on their personal financial journey. Credit union cooperators, as the minister with responsibility for cooperatives, I wish to add my voice to the messages of the bodies such as the Credit Union National Association, CUNA, and Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions. Messages that are seeking and wavering advocacy, continuous professional growth, and operational confidence to protect the interests of all credit unions. That is you, members, leaders, directors, regulators, together with fellow cooperators, our government too. We are in this together. We will commence our empowerment plan for our cooperative sector with a development plan that is inclusive, a plan which we'll aim to reform, restore, and rebuild our cooperative sub-sectors. Our consultations will know no boundaries as we seek to collaborate on efforts to strengthen our economy one sub-sector at a time. Credit union cooperators, our people have been battered by the impact of the world in malers of war, shortages, rising prices, restricted movements, lower household incomes, and yes, sadly, death and unemployment on the heels of an emerging post-COVID era. A post-COVID era which has found us further challenged in improving legislations and regulations, in providing technical assistance programs, in introducing new tools and technologies to strengthen our people and our sectors. We are calling upon all cooperators to prove the resilience of the cooperative model, to partner with us, the government, in our development plan to put our people first. Let us prove the cooperative model's philosophy, its vision and its principles, which have been fashioned in this year's theme, as well as for international day of cooperatives, which states emphatically that cooperatives build a better world. Fellow centrusions, if you are not yet a member of a credit union, I urge you to seek out these themes which boost the importance of one and every type of cooperative enterprise. I'm calling upon all centrusions to make it your duty to empower yourself with some knowledge of the cooperative model on the various types of cooperatives, such as the credit unions. While you are surfing the web today, I urge you to Google cooperatives with the interests of membership, if only to identify with the model's advantages, achievements, and potential to restore our lives and our world. Credit union cooperators, you boast of a subsector of a little more than 121,000 members strong. Your fellow subsectors operating with fewer members are themselves challenged. The members of these productive subsectors are green. We need your inclusion to reform these sectors. We call upon and thank credit union leaders for your support and voice in our cooperative reform development plans. We thank you for designing and executing loan demand packages that assisted our solution people during COVID-19. Your moratorium and loan rescheduling resulted in an increased demand for credit union loans. Hence, the St. Lucian credit union subsector featured prominently within the CCCU report as executing a successful loan strategy during COVID-19. Our credit union subsector recorded the highest demand for loan services within the region during the period 2020 to 2021. This demonstrates that membership has confidence in the credit union's ability to empower their financial future. Hence, an increase in loan demands. Many families were sustained through a credit union during the pandemic. The rolling out of the newly introduced ATM cards facilitated greater access to deposit services during the no-contact period. A virtual presence affected within nationally shortened operating hours maintained access to credit union products and services. Restructuring and rebranding are on the rise. And members are testifying to the credit union's ability to respond to their needs physically and virtually. All that is COVID tested. Hence, very little interruptions or shutdowns of any of our credit union cooperatives was experienced or reported during this period. So I leave you today, hopefully, with a stronger conviction to be part of the cooperative movement. If you are not yet a member, explore this. If you are a member, maintain engagement with your credit union. Volunteer, dialogue, participate. Have a presence in your credit union's business. Urge orders to explore the services of a credit union and be empowered to challenge the model with your financial future. Congratulations to each and every director, member, officer, employee, past, and current on this distinguished day. Give thanks, be proud, represent, and celebrate your day. Happy International Credit Union Day 2022. I thank you and wish you God's richest blessings