 Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that you please take your seats as we prepare to begin the official opening ceremony of the St. Lucia Business Expo. We will begin shortly. In the meantime, if you are away from the tent sitting area, can you please for the last time make your way down? I request that we all kindly stand for the arrival of the Governor-General, His Excellency Cyril Erol Charles. Thank you. I now invite you to remain standing but this time at attention for the National Anthem. Thank you, Yannick. Before we begin today's proceedings, I would now like us to all invoke the good word and the spirit of the Lord in today's proceedings and so I invite Pastor Griffith to bless today's proceedings. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. O God and our Father, we thank you that we can celebrate another day in the land of the living. Thank you, God, for your grace and your mercies. We have not been consumed. And today, God, we bring this independence expo ceremony to you. Thank you, God, for all those who've been involved in the planning and the execution of this expo ceremony. We thank you, God, for every person here today, from our Governor-General, right down to the lowest person. We all gather to give you thanks. You have blessed this beautiful land with resources, natural resources and human resources. And God, we ask that you will help us grant us every gift, every grace we need, that we can use these resources to the glory of your name and to the joy of your people. This expo will truly live up to its motto excellence at home and abroad. And Father, we pray that this spirit of excellence will be with all of us in all our endeavors. That we who name the name of this excellent God will seek to be excellent. Father, we just celebrated Nobel laureate week celebrating two of your excellent sons in poetry and in economics. And God, we know you are not finished with us yet. We ask that you continue to bless this good land, the God. The God that you enlarge our performance, the excellence of our performance at home and abroad. We may throw our excellence into new markets and find new products. And so we pray God that this spirit of excellence will never leave us in our planning and in our performances. We bless you. We know we live in enemy territory, God. And so we pray that you would deliver us from every attitude, every action that would not lend itself to our fulfilling, our destiny that you have in store for us. So bless this function today, God. May it be to your honor. May it be to your glory. May it be to our joy as we as one people recognize that in our relationship with you we have the responsibility to shape our destiny. In Jesus' name we pray with thanksgiving. Amen. And amen. Thank you so much pastor Griffith. You may be seated. His Excellency Cyril Errol Charles, Governor-General of St. Lucia, Honorable Emma Hippolett, Minister for Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Corporatives and Consumer Affairs, Honorable Richard Frederick, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with Responsibility for Housing and Local Government and Parliamentary Representative for Castries Central, Honorable Alfred Prosper, excuse me, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, Honorable Ernest Hiller, Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information, Mr. Augusta de Gazor, Cabinet Secretary, other members of our esteemed cabinet, Mr. Benjamin Emmanuel, Chair of the Independence Committee, Mrs. Sophia Alfé Henry, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Corporatives and Consumer Affairs, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Permanent Secretaries and Deputy Permanent Secretaries, Ms. Yvonne Aigard, Chair of the National Export Council, Ms. Sunita Daniel, CEO of Export St. Lucia, Staff of Export St. Lucia and the Ministries of Commerce, Agriculture, Tourism, as well as staff of the Events Company of St. Lucia and the St. Lucia Tourism Authority, Business Owners and Business Representatives, Members of the Media, Sons and Daughters of St. Lucia. Happy Independence 44 and welcome to the St. Lucia Business Expo. The St. Lucia Business Expo is a part of the Independence 44 calendar of events and this two-day activity, which commences today, is set to showcase and exhibit the excellence of St. Lucia manufacturers and St. Lucia producers, both to you, the public, to each other as businesses and to visitors who will definitely be walking through our city over the next two days. You can expect to see, like we've all mentioned, a lot of excellence today, also interspersed with world-class entertainment from some of your favourite performers, St. Lucia performers. So we're encouraging all of you to stick around the entire day today and come back tomorrow to see what St. Lucia has to offer at the St. Lucia Business Expo. This activity, like I mentioned, forms part of the Independence 44 calendar of events and for this purpose I now call on Mr. Benjamin Emanuel, the chair of the Independence Committee. Give him a round of applause. His Excellency, Mr. Errol Charles, Acting Governor-General of St. Lucia, Honourable Dr. Eunice Hele, Acting Prime Minister, Honourable Emma Hippolyte, Minister responsible for commerce and the various portfolios there following. Honourable Alfred Prosper, Minister responsible for agriculture. Honourable Richard Fedrick, Minister for Local Government and Housing and also District Representative for Cassry Central. Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Augusto DeGasso, and permit me at this time to adopt the protocol established, well established by the mysteries of ceremony or the dignitaries, specially invited guests, ladies and gentlemen. I am very privileged this morning to be associated with the official opening of the Business Expo, this Business Expo, which is an important national event on our calendar of activities for the celebration of St. Lucia's 44th anniversary of independence. This activity, I believe, truly demonstrates and is in keeping with the objective of the Independence Committee and the general celebration of Independence 44, we sought to encourage maximum participation of our people and from the layout today, the extent of this Business Expo gives clear indication that the planners went all out to ensure maximum participation of our business community. So I think that it confirms that the objective established that Independence 44 will seek to encourage the participation of all St. Lucia's from all walks of life, this Business Expo, the extent of the layout and the extent of its coverage I think is in keeping with that objective. And in that regard, I would want to express on behalf of the Independence Committee our appreciation and thanks to the planning team for ensuring that the objective of maximum participation being reflected in this Expo. Secondly, permit me to just say a little about our theme for independence which is Duvassam, Duvassam is one people shaping our destiny. I got a little distracted. Clearly the theme of this Expo which focuses on excellence allows for part of the Independence theme which calls on all St. Lucia's as one people to take responsibility for shaping our own destiny and in this regard from the business community I have no doubt that your focus on excellence is going to highlight the capacity and capability of our nation both in manufacturing and services and in the various areas that will be displayed here over the next two days which will give clear indication that we as a people can forge and determine our destiny by promoting and encouraging what is ours by promoting and encouraging local and given support to our business community so that as a nation we can work together and forge our own destiny I think your focus on excellence is quite in keeping with that objective. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, let me on behalf of the Independence Committee express my gratitude to the Planning Committee to the Ministry of Commerce to export St. Lucia that had responsibility for managing this Expo and also I want to express on behalf of the committee our appreciation for the cooperation that is shown by the business community in this location our vendors our taxi drivers and the Castry City Council for all working together in a collaborative and united way to allow for this business expo to be held here over the next two days. I am very excited about the prospects of what that will generate over the next two days and I wish to thank and congratulate all those who would be participating as exhibitors as promoters of your various events and let me use this opportunity also to reach out to all St. Lucia's and to say to you ensure that you use the various activities and participate in Independence 44 because it was designed and organized to ensure the maximum participation of our people and from all indications the early activities that have started under our calendar of activities gives indication that the public is behind the Independence celebration and I want again to congratulate and to thank the organizers of this event for a job well done thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Immanuel. Before we move on I want to recognize the presence of some of our school students we have with us the Denny Rivier Combined School and the Marsha Combined School Bishop Charles R.C. Thank you so much. The St. Lucia Business Expo features a host of sectors we have producers from the manufacturing food sector, manufacturing non-food health and wellness as well as a host of participants within the agriculture sector so when you go around today as you will you will notice the host of agro-processors and for that reason I now invite Honorable Alfred Prosper, Minister for Agriculture to the podium. Thank you, Mistress of Ceremonies. Woman pleasant good morning to all. Please permit me to adopt the protocol that has already been established. However, I wish to acknowledge and recognize the esteemed presence of our Governor-General, His Excellency Cyril Erol Charles, the Acting Prime Minister, Honorable Ernest Ile as well as the Honorable Members of Cabinet, Staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce, Export St. Lucia, the Events Company of St. Lucia, the St. Lucia Tourism Authority and of course all our businesses participating in the St. Lucia Business Expo. This year St. Lucia celebrates 44 years of independence and 44 years of using our own ideas and ingenuity to move our country forward. Our ministry is incredibly proud of where our country has journeyed since 1979. When our country gained independence we were still a nation that was heavily reliant on the banana industry and while this industry built our country we knew that there was a serious need for diversification. We are at a crucial point where we must leverage what we already have, transform it and become a formidable force on the global market. When we view the agricultural sector today there is agreement that we have made strides in diversification. Our agricultural offerings, this does not mean that we will grow in different fruits and vegetables on a wider scale but that we are using the agri-resources that we already have to produce a host of new goods and some businesses are even using them to create new services. From our established exporters like Barron Foods who use our peppers, spices and even bananas to create flavor and joy around the world. To imagine business like Just Gels which uses CMOS to make smoothies and other healthy options. Companies like many of you here are the ones contributing to our economy, our food basket and our food security. You are the ones who will help us reduce the food import bill, live healthier lifestyles and create opportunities for our own Saint Lucia brothers and sisters. This is why our ministry believes that the Saint Lucia business expo is not just an exhibition of locally produced goods but is a treatment, a testament sorry to the resourcefulness of Saint Lucia's producers. It is a place for culmination of bright minds and hard workers who offer innovative solutions and products. We encourage members of the public to visit the display areas, support, ask questions and be inspired to our producers, particularly our agri-producers. I encourage you to share ideas, resources and best practices with each other. Allow this to be a learning experience for all of you. There will be students from schools across the island speak to them and encourage them to get involved in agriculture, production, manufacturing and businesses. The Ministry of Agriculture wishes all involve a successful Saint Lucia business expo and a happy 45th anniversary of independence. Duvansum, our people shaping our destiny. Thank you and God bless our nation. Thank you so much minister. The Saint Lucia business expo is taking place on February 16th and 17th in Constitution Park under William Peter Bolvard and a lot of agencies have come together to make this happen and we really depend on support of the Castries Constituency Council. So now Hon. Richard Frederick who is responsible for local government and Castries Central where we are all located right now will share some brief remarks with all of you. Might I ask you ladies and gentlemen to accept that protocol has already been established but notwithstanding it would be remiss of me not recognizing your Excellency, the Governor-General, the Acting Prime Minister, Ernest Hiller and my cabinet colleagues in Emma Hippolit and Alfred Prospe, our outgoing Cabinet Secretary and of course Chairperson of the Independence Committee. I bid all of you a very good morning. Folks in this country we have quite a bit of local talent, quite a bit of local ability that pleases me in fact that would please any Saint Lucian but those abilities those talents in a lot of instances go unrecognized. You see there are people around us who have made contributions to the development of this country whether in sports, education, agriculture or whatever the discipline may be but persons do not know about it and it was in this regard I just want to juxtapose the battle relay to what we are doing here today. We felt as a ministry of local government in every community there is Mardis or Mardat Mr. Ditz or Mr. Dat who have excelled at the community level but nobody within the wider national sphere would have known about them and we decided to have a battle relay to bring all communities all constituency councils on board and their task was to identify those local heroes cause them to participate and to bring their profile to a national profile as opposed to a community profile. But you know that was conceptualized early in my day as minister of local government because I knew this government wanted to take this country one step further. Sadly I'm hearing it was the brainchild of somebody else I don't know whom. They always say folks success has many fathers but failure is an often. Nobody knows who is the who's the parents or the relatives of a man of no consequence but everybody is related to the prime minister or the governor general or this one or that one. That is the society in which we live. And I want to say a special hello to Mr. Venus Cherry who I see here today. We have already conceptualized another another great deed that will bring us together like Expo St. Lucia will it is hands across St. Lucia and it will happen we will execute. So folks what you are seeing here today means a lot to each and every St. Lucia it means a lot to the business community. They hardly get the opportunity to showcase their products. A lot of times persons get to know that Barron Foods is exporting to England because a relative called from England and say I saw Barron's woodpepper at whatever supermarket. But here we have the opportunity to know what we produce and how far in this global village that products manufactured right here in St. Lucia could reach. The North Pole the South Pole and I want you to give the business community a round of applause to me please. And I'm sure ladies and gentlemen as some of you parade the grounds of Expo this year you may be confronted with surprises that you saw goods you never knew was manufactured in St. Lucia. Last year around this time that hit me but it did not hit me in St. Lucia. I had to travel to Dubai with a delegation led by Dr. Ernestine Lady Acton Prime Minister and some of the products I saw in Dubai my trust me my ignorance was enlightened. My ignorance was taken away from me because I really and truly did not know we had such good products that came out of failing. So all I'm asking persons to do folks is to keep patronizing the local business community. The theme of Expo this year of independence this year sorry Duval Assam won people shaping our destiny like many other activities especially the battery. Unification of efforts this could not have been achieved if that if there wasn't collaboration between various ministries various sectors and various agencies so it speaks to utmost collaboration and unification of efforts. I urge each and every one of you don't threaten like some do to sabotage if you fail you've been left out come to the table and you know throw your cards on the table so that you can be embraced. Join us folks all of us in this country are one so I urge persons to patronize our locals support each other and let us take this country forward together. I thank you. Thank you so much minister Frederick and like the minister mentioned the independence battle really also continues until independence day right. I also I want to now call on Honorable Ernest Hiller acting Prime Minister of St. Lucia to deliver some remarks out today's business Expo and while he makes his way to the podium I want to welcome the Auger Combined School who's also here with us today. Thank you very much mistress of ceremony and like previous speakers let me recognize the protocol already established but recognize the presence of your Excellency Harold Charles Governor-General of St. Lucia recognize my cabinet colleagues who are present as well as permanent secretaries and other distinguished invitees a pleasant good morning to everyone and of course our school children who are present allow me to start by offering apologies on behalf of the Honorable Prime Minister who would love to be here this morning and to bring you his own words of support and encouragement of course the Prime Minister is attending the curriculum heads of government's conference and is unable to be here so he's asked me to convey his apologies and to extend his best wishes. I think the retired cabinet secretary and chairman of the independence planning committee best captured what this is all about and he spoke to the meaning of the theme of independence and Honorable Frederick made a very powerful point it is about bringing our people together and ideas is not about who originated it but it's about the impact and the effects and what it does to take our country forward for us this is a very powerful statement of the capabilities of our people I was striving for excellence and I must say and extend to minister Hippolyte and a team at Expo and a permanent secretary and staff they have been doing a fantastic job in the last few months to elevate and promote and to take St Lucia's products to a different level all together they did not start it it started many years ago but during this historic moment when it is our responsibility to lead the development of our country you are seeing that extra effort that determination and we call on all St Lucia's to join that movement a sum so together all of us can continue the good works of the past come up with new ideas and really work hard to build a better future for our country it doesn't matter to me where the idea came from anyone who has an idea bring it forth put it on the table as minister Frederick said and let us transform our country I'm excited about today I want to take a look at all the different booths to see what is on display and I'm actually looking forward to when we will celebrate our 50th anniversary just how grand and big this will be it is a statement of who we are let us be proud of it let's continue to work together we will always have differences as people we'll have differences in relationships in homes in communities let's not be afraid of those differences but let us always remember that for our country to move forward for our people to have a prosperous future we have to work together we have to be together as one one people shaping our destiny and today is a statement of that intent is a statement of we moving in that direction so let us work together let us find those that have made today possible and I'm sitting look forward to a successful activity thank you very much thank you so much acting Prime Minister Honourable Ernest Hiller and I implore all of you to be just like Minister Hiller today and take the time to go around to every single booth today I'm sure like ministers before have said you will notice some products that you never knew were made in St Lucia and that's really what we want to achieve today we want you to understand the excellence that exists in St Lucia the excellence that is delivered at the hands of St Lucia's this business export really highlights the commercial offerings of our country and now I call on Honourable Emma Hippolett Minister for Commerce to address you our Governor-General His Excellency Errol Charles our Acting Prime Minister Dr. Ernest Hiller Honourable Alfred Prosper Minister for Agriculture Honourable Richard Frederick Minister for Housing our new Cabinet Secretary other Cabinet colleagues our former Cabinet Secretary and Chairperson of the Independence Committee Mrs. Sophia Alfie Henry Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce DPS Justin and the staff of the Ministry of Commerce Miss Sunita Daniel Executive Director of Exports St Lucia and the staff of Exports St Lucia other Officials of Government Exhibitors and I see there Mrs. Paula James the Executive Director of the Manufacturers Association businesses established businesses in the Boulevard Exhibitors esteem ladies and gentlemen students St Lucia friends of St Lucia one and all I join the greetings of the Acting Prime Minister and my previous Cabinet colleagues and wish all of you had this morning advanced independence greetings all what a long way we have come as a nation I start by offering words of encouragement and congratulations at this business export which begins today I echo the eloquent words from the Minister for Agriculture from the Minister for Housing and our Acting Prime Minister on the efforts and success of our business persons men and women farmers fishers service providers as we continue to strive towards diversification and a thriving manufacturing sector as I sat I and look around me I notice and I want to recognize the excellence of Barron foods Bryson Company, Tenderoni and that's just the end I give them a hand of applause ladies and gentlemen because they make us proud on the international market our country has a very rich history built on the toil of our forefathers from political stalwarts like Sir George Charles and Sir John Compton to the stalwarts who have actually have businesses in this Boulevard and today I want to recognize the Quentin Charles disease the Cox and Borbren family the Clark family their Judah family they build this Boulevard ladies and gentlemen and it is fitting that you are having this business export here today I also want to recognize our farmers that flank our eastern west coast in particular I want to hail my function jack dashing farmers this morning and our banana farmers our honey producers I want to recognize our agro processors Viking traders Abbey's mrs. and rose delight just to name a few of the persons who toil and serve us I was that's right the debolish thank you my brother our Saint Lucians at home and abroad in the diaspora those who are known her to us and those who are known worldwide we have much to celebrate in our young 44 years we've had our dark days from hurricanes and economic crises over which we have no control to the choices that we make every day as the people we always seems to bounce back which speaks of the resilience of Saint Lucia and her people the level of economic activities has grown as we have witnessed increases in the number of agro processors our farmers have been diversified in the field and exports of goods of over 133 million is the average over the last two years this is evident that growth can be seen as we go through the boost and businesses represented at this independence export today a thrust to increase value added products is on the way ladies and gentlemen and I want to remind our very small producers and processors of our micro small medium enterprise loan grant facility at the ministry of commerce I'm telling you the door telling you the door is still open do not let that train pass you by we have looked at our packaging and our labeling standards we have we have testing facilities and very importantly the capacity building of our people it is vital that our independence extends not just through our sovereignty but through our business community our commerce and our youth and the young people please remember the youth economy the door is open for you as we celebrate let us reflect let us realign let us rejoice let us reflect and learn from our past what we have done well and what we need to improve on let us realign ourselves with positivity goodwill and love for ourselves and our country let us rejoice for the favor that has found us from our God above and the promise of continued prosperity through his grace I would like to thank all the agencies who have worked tirelessly to put this export together the ministry of commerce ministry of tourism ministry of agriculture export centrucia events company of centrucia the castry city council and of course you our exhibitors I wish you an enjoyable and successful exposition happy 44th anniversary centrucia ladies and gentlemen it gives me the greatest honor and pride to officially declare this independent business expo open may god continue to guide us on our journey duvar some one people shaping our destiny duvar some young pep thank you so much minister for these words of encouragement words of support words of affirmation and for of course opening the st lucia business expo before you all make your way to the various tents and exhibitions I now call on the CEO of export st lucia miss sunita daniel to tell you just how much collaboration went into making this activity a reality good morning everyone this event is all about you the business community all the 70 plus almost 80 businesses who are exhibiting here today this is about you and this is about every single centrucia our lead clapper at the front our lead cheerleader our school children this is all for you and we want to thank you so much for your participation and for being here with us today I want to extend immense gratitude to his excellency the governor general errol charles thank you so much so for being here with you with us it shows just how your commitment is to just not centrucia but also the business community thank you to the acting prime minister honorable dr. Ernest hillay a gentleman who we called and said we need you here today and who had many meetings planned today but let them all go to be here with us we really really thank you for being here with us thank you for the sacrifice that you make to the ministries of commerce agriculture and tourism thank you as usual for your sterling partnership for working collaboratively on this initiative I want to express my gratitude particularly to the team of export centrucia to the team of sedu and the team of the commerce and industry unit of the department of commerce thank you many people don't know the late hours that have come into putting this together but that team within the ministry of commerce has done this excellently the events company of centrucia has played a pivotal role in all that you see here today and we are ever grateful for your assistance to the centrucia tourism authority thank you for supporting our initiatives whenever we call you to do so to the castries city council and the royal centrucia police force to the city police we are thankful to our suppliers and service providers thank you to the members of the media thank you for your support for sharing the good news of this event and the other events of our 44th independence anniversary we extended an invitation to several schools around the island to attend the centrucia business expo and I'm so pleased to see that many of our schools even from the rural areas have made it here to the city to witness the events of the next two days and finally once again to you the business community who accepted our invitation to participate we cannot say enough thank you we thank you and we ask you to continue working with us as we work to an even bigger and better expo for our 45th anniversary I'm saying this already Mr. Emmanuel so thank you everyone and we hope that you patronize our small producers please most of the items are on sale work with your wallets really support them and let's have a blessed independence anniversary thank you and good day thank you all so much for joining us for the official opening of the St Lucia business expo both in person at the William Peter Boulevard and for those of you joining us via television via the government information service stick around from 12 p.m. this afternoon so in just one hour we will have the jazz our entertainment segment brought to you by the St Lucia tourism authority followed by some more wonderful entertainment from our local artists shemi jay and affa ale the st lucia business expo ends at 6 p.m. today and continues at 10 a.m. on friday where we'll run until 7 p.m. with a lunchtime calypso show and an after work line featuring some of your favorites umpa serbans alpha s ready for machine and the big band dyp thank you so much for being here with us today we are eternally grateful well the representatives here today to embark on the first walkthrough of the St Lucia business expo that will be led by our ministerial delegation our governor general and other representatives feel free to join feel free to follow feel free to patronize and support each other this independence as we've all said we are one people shaping our destiny thank you so much