 Taiwan and the United States, allies of the St. Lucia government, and affiliates of the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, GCTF, chose St. Lucia to host the regional launch of its latest Women's Empowerment Initiative. Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre delivered the opening remarks at the August 25th launch event. The Hon. Pierre welcomed the GCTF program, which dovetails with his administration's efforts to create jobs and also make available more opportunities for women and youth in the island's emerging economic space. These opportunities provided by the government of Taiwan are a huge investment into our human resource, which is the main capital of our nation. As a government that has promised to put people first, I'm very grateful that Taiwan is a formidable partner and ensures that we deliver on that promise. People are and must remain the main priority of nation-building and we aim to keep it that way. The well-being of our people must be first in our deliberations and our decisions, and we thank Taiwan for helping us in this venture. In addition to Taiwan, I applaud and welcome President Biden's America's partnership economic prosperity, which aims at a new model of cooperation between the U.S. and countries of the Americas. Accordingly, the GCTF event jointly hosted by these three parties, the Taiwanese Embassy, the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, and my government, demonstrates our pursuit of a better future for the peoples of the Americas. After all, in the final analysis, it is the people who matter, and youth development and human empowerment must be a vital part of the solutions being prescribed. The GCTF Women's Empowerment Launch in St. Lucia, Honorable Pierre Hopes, will have hemispheric reverberations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean region. It is imperative that the countries of the Americas work together to adopt political commitments and policy decisions to address the challenges confronting us. All we ask, as a small country, is to allow us the scope to develop and the opportunity. We believe that our islands have the human capital, we have the human capital, and we have the urge to develop our people. All we ask is an opportunity. This event is being held as Taiwan's solution to the U.S. continue to collaborate in ways to raise awareness and broaden support for women in Latin America and the Caribbean. By the end of today's proceedings, I hope we could have fruitful discussions to identify our challenges and explore opportunities to create a more women-enabled environment in Latin America and the Caribbean for a more sustainable, resilient, and glorious future for our people. Taiwan and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the global cooperation and training framework in 2015. Taiwan uses the GCTF to build human resource capacity in other countries. Australia and Japan have recently become full partners of the GCTF. To date, dozens of St. Lucian's have benefited from Taiwan-sponsored workshops and training programs. From the office of the Prime Minister, Rihani Isidou.