 Greetings to all Solutions in the Diaspora, wherever you may be, and happy 42nd Independence anniversary. It is indeed a pleasure to connect with all Solutions on this occasion, despite the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic that has taken the lives of our Nationals both at home and abroad. You are always in our prayers. Condolences go out from the Government of Sanusha to all our Nationals in the Diaspora who have lost family members and loved ones during the past year. It has indeed been a very trying time, one that has tested the spirit and the resolve of people everywhere. It is my sincere hope that the various efforts being pursued individually and collectively by countries and organizations all over the world will achieve the required positive results that will allow all of us to return to some semblance of normalcy within the shortest possible time. God willing. In Sanusha, we've had some very positive news despite a difficult January. We've begun to roll out the vaccine. We're improving our testing and enforcement of the protocols, and I believe our people are truly rising to the occasion, understanding the impact of a shutdown on our small economy. I can report we have significantly reduced the quarantine costs for returning Nationals in order to ease the burden and encourage a more monitored quarantine system. We want our Nationals to come home. However, we need strict adherence in order to keep everyone safe, including you. And I thank you all for your continued cooperation. I also call on the Diaspora to assist us with the fake information coming out on social media, especially as it relates to Solution's COVID-19 response. The image of our country is too important for us to allow it to be ruined by simply sharing a fake post or false news story. So please, think before you share. This year we celebrate independence under the theme, a resilient nation we can, we will. The resilience of the people of Sanusha in the face of adversity, especially since 1979 when we took that bold step into the future, is well documented. COVID has not been able to break our spirit or dull our enthusiasm in striving to create a better Sanusha. In fact, we were well on track to achieving that goal when the pandemic broke out at the beginning of 2020. By then, we brought back economic growth to Sanusha. We'd managed to significantly reduce unemployment levels, as well as our debt-to-GDP ratio. Foreign direct investment that has become so vital in spurring economic activity had started returning to Sanusha. We've been able to attract several call centers to our shores, including Ojo Labs and recently Itel BPO, who are already expanding in the south of the island. This has ensured that hundreds of solutions remained employed despite the pandemic. We've continued to push on with our major projects, such as the Honorary International Airport, the San Jude Hospital, and our road improvement plans. The government of Sanusha is forever grateful for the assistance being given to our country by our nationals abroad, within the form of advocacy, mobilizing assistance for the island in times of disaster, or by direct investment, or even introducing potential investors. Under the leadership of our Minister of External Affairs, the Honorable Sarah Flood-Wilburn, our overseas officers have assisted in so many areas, including security, healthcare, and education. We've received help with border control, fire trucks, and ambulances. There have been donations of medicines, ventilators, e-books, and doors have been opened to new opportunities for Sanusha to form meaningful partnerships, such as with the World Economic Forum. I'm so very proud of all the support staff for the Sanusha around the world, as my aim with our overseas officers was always to have them function more effectively when it comes to lobbying on our behalf and attracting positive investment and interest in Sanusha. On this independence anniversary, my message to Sanushans in the diaspora is to stay the course and remain focused. I urge you to continue playing that role so we keep working to build a Sanusha we can always be proud of. I know you always keep Sanusha in your hearts and please know you're always in ours. Once again, happy independence day to all. We can and we will. D, my fellow brothers and sisters in the Sanushan diaspora, my people, 2020 has been a very difficult time for us. We have seen life like we've never seen it before or we never expected. I have seen pain and grief like I have never seen in my life on this earth. It has been very, very tough for every one of us. But as our independence theme says, we are a resilient nation. We can and we will. We are people who have been through terrible adversities in the past. I've seen Sanusha go through troughs and storms and hurricanes and all kinds of natural disasters that could have devastated this country. It wiped out our banana industry at one point in time. It caused us loss of lives and a lot of grief from deaths for our families. Yet, Sanusha recovered. Sanushans are resilient. This COVID-19 cannot defeat us. When it first came and it first started, we did not know what this was. We had never experienced anything like this. So for a while, it shut us in. For a while, we would chase to cover and hover and hide. It damaged us, our economic status. It damaged our social, our spiritual, our relational lives, our working lives. It damaged us. And for a while, we did not understand, but this is 2021. We are on the dawn of our 42nd independence anniversary. And when we reflect and we recall the meaning of our independence, we recall what we are as a nation and as a people. We say to COVID-19, you cannot defeat us. We will wear our mask. We'll practice social distancing. We will wash our hands and sanitize our hands. We will stay six feet away from people. We will not go where we normally go and do what we normally used to do. Why? Because we want to do all of that again. We want to go back to our lives as we used to have it. And the only way that we can do that is to defeat the enemy. And defeating the enemy is COVID-19. Whatever it may be, however it may have come, the fact is it is here and we need to get rid of it so that we can get back to life and to live in. We are a strong set of people. Not only have we survived and pulled through and stood resilient as a nation, but as a race, as a people of color. We have gone through so much. And here we are still. We're still standing. We're still building. We're still developing. We're all over the world still pressing and pushing up. COVID-19 cannot defeat us. It is either it or us. And we as a nation, we as a people have chosen that it's going to be us. Because when we look at the world, when we think back on the past, they have been pandemics before. And like every other warfare, they have been casualties. But they survived and we are here. So then we too, we've had casualties, yes. But those of us who are standing are the army that can defeat and beat COVID-19. We know how we have the tools to equip us to defeat it. We determine how quickly it goes away and what we need to do so that we can get back to our lives and to live it. We have so many, we had so many plans for returning home, for investing, for trading, you know. So many things that you had on hold with our office is standing there now. Why? Because of COVID-19. I want it gone. You want it gone. Our government wants it gone. Our nation wants it gone. And how can that happen? We all come together and we make it go away. We do what we need to do to make it go away. This is our 42nd Independence anniversary. We are liberated people in more ways than just being independent. And so celebrate with a glass for me. Take a flag and celebrate. Put on some creole music and dance. But no matter what you do, put on the television and look at some old reruns of past independence. Do whatever you need to do, but celebrate. Do not sit and be despondent. Feel sorry for yourself. Allow the psychological thing to take over your mind. Do not allow COVID-19 to cause you to lose the joy of the significance of our 42nd Independence anniversary. We are a resilient nation. We are a resilient people. We can do this. Together we can do it. And you know what? We will do it. Because with God on our side, with us following what we need to do, with the determination that we are coming out of this. And we have to. The Spanish flu went away. Other pandemics went away. COVID-19 will go away. How quickly it goes away determines on us. It depends on us what we do and how determined we are. We can. We will. I will see you later in 2021. I look forward to seeing you all again. I'm very grateful to all of you. I love you. Senutia loves you. The government of Senutia is determined to do whatever they need to do to create and continue building disengagement with our diaspora. You know that. You've seen what has been happening. You know that the government is serious about the engagement with the diaspora. Never before have we had so much going on with you and Senutia. We love you. We want you to come home. Join us to defeat this COVID-19 and embrace our beautiful land. See you in 2021 later. God bless you all. Fellow Senutians living abroad, I especially want to thank you tonight for all that you continue to do for this extraordinary country that we also love, Senutia. I want to tonight celebrate all of the decades old of painstaking sacrifices that you have made and even while you may live in distant lands, your love, your compassion, your care, and your interest in our advancement and development has never dwindled. And so for this we are extremely thankful and extremely grateful to you. We are a better country because of your efforts. Every single fundraiser that you do, every single charitable or philanthropic work that you do in your host communities or community of origin, we are a better country because of those. So tonight I want to say that even though COVID-19 continues to limit our interactions, it really cannot extinguish or dilute the strong bonds that we feel as Senutians. And so, on the eve of our independence, I want to especially tonight salute the nominees for tourism. The industry, no doubt, is going through a very challenging time. One of its most challenging time. Tourism, though it continues to be vulnerable to incidents such as SARS and the 2008 crash, we have never seen a crisis such as this one. But what tourism has shown is great resilience. And with that resilience, perseverance and true St. Lucian style, we will beat COVID-19 and we will overcome together. And so I thank you all for your prayers. I thank you all for your well wishes as we seek to rebuild tourism amidst the most challenging time. But you can bet that we will win. And so tonight I want to say a special congratulations to the winner and thank him or her for their most extraordinary contribution in the field of tourism. I thank you. The 2019 novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unparalleled health crisis and disrupted every aspect of social and business activity across the globe. In response to the pandemic, the government of St. Lucia implemented necessary measures to protect the health and safety of its citizenry. Similar measures as introduced by governments across the world have had a debilitating impact on commerce, in the domestic and international markets and threatened to erode the developmental gains over the last decade. The supply chains have been disrupted. International travel and exports have plunged. Commodity prices crashed. And employment has seen on the rise and many businesses have been displaced, particularly the micro and small enterprises. According to the World Bank, COVID-19 is set to plunge the global economy into the worst recession since World War II. Now confronted by the prospect of a global economic recession, the onus is on the government and people of St. Lucia to join forces to steer our nation towards economic stability. Central to this effort is the need for internal reflection, patriotism and national pride in supporting what is truly ours. The Ministry of Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs is excited to build continued momentum for the Love St. Lucia campaign, aimed at building resilience within the local economy, while sensitizing our populace to the benefits of supporting local industry. The government of St. Lucia continues to support the growth and development of our local manufacturers and service providers by way of concessions, tariff protection for certain industries, subventions to associations and agencies structured to assist our manufacturers and service providers to enhance their efficiency and the quality of their goods and services. We are proud to be the exporter of world-class goods and services to regional and international markets. However, there is greater scope to expand the distribution and use of our local products and increase the utilization of our services. Therefore, as part of the 42nd Independent Celebrations, the Ministry of Commerce will accelerate its efforts to improve consumer awareness and increase domestic market share of our local manufacturers and service providers. The Ministry is confident that with continuous sensitization activities, consumers will pivot their purchasing options towards domestic consumption, thereby decreasing imports and increasing the circulation of already limited currency within the economy. The increased domestic consumption should be complemented by increased production capacity and increased labor force for an enhanced circular economy. Therefore, our recovery must be fundamentally seeking to secure the foundation of our economy, whilst we build resilience by the development or enhancement of new or improved ventures. My fellows and lutions, as we celebrate another year of independence, I encourage you to buy our local goods and services. Grow what you eat. Share the surplus with family, with neighbors. We can reduce our import bill and we will build a resilient nation if we support and appreciate what is ours. Love, Saint Lucia. Say, Saint Nou. Happy 42nd Independence. I thank you.