 Welcome to the NTN Nightly, I'm Nisha Charles, this edition's top stories. Several projects are assessed by the US Development Institution OPIC for Investment. The Government of St Lucia signs the loan agreement with the Exim Bank for the Rehabilitation of Roads. A National School Safety Policy for St Lucia is taking shape, all that was the latest in youth development, sports and the NTN Nouvelle Arquio. Some projects described as game-changers for St Lucia were the focus of an official visit here by a high-level delegation from the overseas private investment corporation, the United States Government Development Finance Institution. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Sharsney guided the delegation on a tour of the site for the cruise ship terminal in Viewfort, as well as the cul-de-sac port, General Novel reports. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Sharsney briefed the delegation on a number of projects identified for investment. The Prime Minister explained the first of the projects was the cruise ship terminal in Viewfort that would be in partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines. The Government has participated in two years of discussions, feasibility and technical studies have also been completed and the Government has agreed to lease eight acres of land in the Viewfort area to Carnival Cruise Lines. A new pier will also be constructed with the capacity to hold two 6,000 passenger vessels. The project is valued at $55 million. Another project is the cargo facility in the cul-de-sac area. Prime Minister Sharsney indicated that preliminary studies have been completed and relevant parties are working on refining the details of the project. The aim, according to the Prime Minister, is to commence construction on the project no later than the end of 2019 in an effort to complete the project within the next two years. The last project on the agenda was the North-South Highway. The Prime Minister explained. We've broken down that project into three parts. So the first part would really be from the Darren-Sammi Stadium that everybody knows up north, connecting to Denry and that we would also put a major archery connecting that highway through Babano on the Allen-Buske Highway. So that would be phase one. Phase two of the project would be from Denry with a tunnel through the Bartolil, which would then connect a new highway to where we're putting the cargo facility. And phase three down the road would be from Denry to view Fort. But obviously that's the one that we require the least priority at this point. But certainly the first phase of the project is critical to us because of the traffic congestion we're already experiencing between cast trees and grovesly. And the fact is that we don't have the physical space to introduce a proper four-lane highway. OPIC's acting president and chief executive officer David Bohigan expressed gratitude to the government and people of St. Lucia for their hospitality. He explained that since the inception of OPIC, it has invested some 3.5 billion dollars into various projects in the Caribbean. For St. Lucia, these included the hospitality and manufacturing sectors. Bohigan added that the entities looking to do more in the Caribbean and having visited St. Lucia and been presented with the government's vision, the OPIC has a better idea of what role it can play. The acting president and chief executive officer added that step two commences when the delegation returns to Washington. Well, clearly there's interest from President Trump in trying to invest more in St. Lucia. There's also interest in Congress to be able to do more in the Caribbean. So our next step is going back to Washington tomorrow and helping policymakers understand the environment down here from a strategic standpoint. But I think more importantly is what we can do in the days that follow, which is talking to investors throughout the United States to help them understand the opportunities that you're building here in infrastructure and in tourism and beyond where we can help empower entire societies. We're particularly proud of our 2X Women's Initiative in any way that we can help women owned or women managed or women supporting businesses is something that we want to do more of. So I think telling the story that the prime minister has sketched today something that we need to do in the investment community and in Washington. Bohigan re-emphasized the prime minister's sentiments that the U.S. regards St. Lucia as a valuable ally and is always looking to strengthen such relationships. For the Government Information Service, I am Janelle Norville. The government of St. Lucia has signed the first loan agreement with the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China, Taiwan for the financing of major development projects here. The Export-Import Bank has agreed to finance the Hironara International Airport redevelopment project and the reconstruction or rehabilitation of secondary roads and collector roads. Prime Minister the Honourable Alain Shastney on Wednesday affixed his signature to the agreement for the first disbursement of funds which will go towards the road projects and the housing sector. We're signing the first loan agreement with Ex-Im Bank today, which will be for $50 million, of which $41 million is going into the road reconstruction. $8 million is being divided equally into housing as well as was into the refurbishment of the schools, which we're going to be continuing again this year with another $10 million EC into both of those initiatives. The Taiwanese-funded road development program amounting to $42 million U.S. dollars over 36 months is about to commence on strategic 13 roads island-wide, including roads that will link farmers and rural communities with the rest of the island. 140 CMOS farmers are benefiting from a new business link. Export-St. Lucia has facilitated the first shipment of CMOS to the U.S. with rural community of Prahle. Eminating from Export-St. Lucia's recent admission to the United States, it was observed that growing consumer trends around healthy eating has presented an opportunity for dried CMOS from St. Lucia. The product is in high demand, especially with the increased vegan community. Through the guidance of Export-St. Lucia, the Prahle CMOS Association has capitalized on the opportunity and has shipped its first export to the United States. Sunita Daniel is the Chief Executive Officer of Export-St. Lucia. The buyer in the U.S. has already told us that from the time that the CMOS arrived in the U.S., that all of the packets had already been sold out. So he's very interested in working further with them. We are quite excited to continue working with them. We want to also work along the value chain with them in terms of labeling proper packaging. We have market access to the U.S. through the various trade agreements that have been signed. However, market penetration has been an issue for us. And this was one of the first ways of penetrating the market when the consumer now has a taste of this product and knows that they like the product. For us, then, it's about branding that and getting the CMOS producers up to that level. President of the Prahle CMOS Farmers Association, Bronaventure Jabatis, says the main aim of the association is to reduce poverty in the community of Prahle. And he anticipates that with this potential new market for the export of sun-dried CMOS, it would go a long way in helping the association realize its goal. At one time, almost everybody in the Prahle community was, in one way or another, engaged in banana producing. But today, with the demise of the banana industry, this has changed and most people are unemployed. But with this possibility that we now have with CMOS, people will now be able to find an alternative to banana production. There are 140 farmers involved in the association. The impact is tremendous for them, not only because the price that they are getting is a very good price for an overseas product, but also because it goes directly to the association. It goes directly to them and we all know the multiplier effects that can have on a very small rural community. Our job really is to ensure that they can get the maximum price for the CMOS for their product and also get into other markets. CMOS Farmer and employee of the Prahle CMOS Farmers Association, Andrinas Tannis-Kles, says she's eager to see the impact of this first shipment and anticipates an upsurge in CMOS farming, as well as job creation. The demand is great and right now we need as many farmers as we could possibly find in order to supply, right now we're trying to supply to the US, so the demand is great and we have little farmers, so I would encourage others to get involved because I mean we all need money and we all actually want more, so we could achieve more, so get on board. The Prahle CMOS Farmers Association is eagerly anticipating the expansion of business with the US and other markets. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting. Representatives from the Ministry of Health and Wellness were recently granted the opportunity to play a significant part towards developing gender equality in health, more from FNEL Neptune. Efforts are strengthening national capacities in advancing gender equality in health were undertaken as the Pan-American Health Organization PAHO hosted a workshop recently. The workshop provided participants with the opportunity to conduct a gender analysis in health and to discuss the development and use of a gender and health profile. Gender and Health Advisor of PAHO Kaffi Kouya says this activity is important as it will allow participants to develop a work plan to ensure national gender and health profile. The way the workshop is designed is that we look at what are some of the pressing issues with regards to achieving gender equality in health as a part of health equity. Second, having the tools to be able to conduct what are the causes using data and statistics to appreciate differences and disparities in health. And then thirdly, being able to produce a national document to advocate for stronger policies to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity to have good health care. Biostatistician in the Department of Health and Wellness, Phil Leon says he's very pleased that the workshop will provide them with the knowledge on how the health sector can use gender analysis tools to effectively reduce health inequalities, in its inclusion. It brings to light the disparities between the gender, especially when it comes to our data collection processes and how we move further. What we can appreciate is that we're getting the information and the sense of how there's a difference between sex and gender. Sex being the biology, gender being the rules that are assigned and how we cater in terms of equality and equity. And what we've been finding is yes, we have information, we have data, we have been making moves towards interventions, but we've been lacking in that pointed area. The Pan-American Health Organization, PAHU, is hopeful that St. Lucia will be able to develop a gender and health profile given priority to selected health topics within national health priorities. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. And this is the NTN Nightly, Ryan O'Brien is up next. Be aware of and follow water conservation practices. Here are a few tips to help you save water. Wash dishes in a basin of water instead of a running tap. Soak pots and pans instead of letting the water run while scraping them. Check toilets for leaks by putting dye in the tank. If colour shows in the bowl without flushing, there is a leak. A leaking toilet can waste thousands of gallons of water. Use a bucket instead of a hose to wash cars and reuse grey water from laundry to water plants. Water conservation reduces energy consumption and strain on the water distribution system. Conserve water whenever possible and remember every job counts. A message brought to you by the Water and Sewage Company Incorporated, Wasco. Welcome back. We join Ryan O'Brien for the latest happenings in youth development and sports. Thanks, Misha. Welcome once again to happenings in youth development and sports on the NTN Nightly News. I'm Ryan O'Brien. School Sports Coordinator Isabel Alexander Markey is anticipating that the Inter-District Primary Schools' female football competition will be able to earn its place on the calendar of school sports events. The success of the 2019 tournament has influenced her conclusion that football at this level, among females, will only serve to develop interest in women's football in St. Lucia. It's an added sport for the girls to go into. We see kindle interest in the females going into some of the so-called male-dominated sports. And football is another one of them. And so we're looking to see greater improvements, we're seeing it continuing in the future. And we can only up the standard as the years go by. The St. Lucia Football Association is one of the entities involved in the running of the competition. And it also sees it as a crucial factor in strengthening the nursery for emerging talent. The Embassy of the Republic of China, Taiwan presented a new volunteer to the Ministry of Development and Sports on Tuesday morning. Rosalind Lee, 29, will serve the ministry for one year as a table tennis coach, replacing William Lien, whose volunteer service ended last year. Lee is now the only female table tennis coach on Island and will work alongside head coach Chris Wells and coach Stephen Joseph to advance the sport among locals. Lee has started a stint, meeting with junior members of the National Table Tennis Centre and coaching at the Ave Maria Girls Primary School. And that item on table tennis will come to the end of your update on youth development and sports today. Thanks, Ryan. A National School Safety Policy for St. Lucia is taking shape. This week, another consultation was held to hammer out key aspects. The Model Safe Schools program was designed to enhance the capacity of the Ministries of Education in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to incorporate and mainstream comprehensive disaster risk management considerations in education sector policies, planning and operations. The program is being funded by the Caribbean Development Bank and implemented by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, SEDAMA. Consultants are on Island this week to be part of a broad-based stakeholder consultation with members of the National Safe Schools Committee, which include education officers, the police and the Ministry of Health. The school safety coordinator with the Ministry of Education, Berners Kodra, says the aim of the consultation will help develop the school safety policy for St. Lucia. What we are looking to do is to gather the views and input of many other stakeholders where school safety is concerned. For example, NYC, as it relates to the students' input, as it relates to the school safety policy, we look at the Ministry of Health as we continue to partner with agencies within the Ministry of Health as it relates to environmental health and when we look at various pandemics and so on. So we are looking at partnering with all of those agencies. The Department of Physical Planning, for example, as you look at topographical maps and hazard mapping for our schools. So all of those things, they will be looking to gather information to make our policy more in-depth. Eleanor Jones is a disaster risk management and sustainable development strategist who has worked throughout the region. Her company, Environmental Solutions Limited, was contracted by CEDEMA to undertake an inspection of schools across the participating islands and to develop the safe schools policy. The safe schools policy is going to be looking at how schools prepare for these extreme events, for the extreme vulnerability which they face in addition to that. So it means that they would be looking at the structures, the extent to which the structures. So we have an engineer on the team who is doing some of those assessments. We have seven schools in its inclusion that we're looking at. Then we're looking also at whether there are emergency plans, what you have within the schools for handling emergencies, whether they're health emergencies or natural hazard emergencies. We're looking at the vulnerability. Where are these schools located? Are they by rivers? Are they by mountains? Etc. And also very importantly, we're looking at the people aspect. Funding for the implementation of the program is provided by the CDB through a grant of 746,000 euros under the African-Caribbean-Pacific European Union and Caribbean Development Bank National Disaster Risk Management in Cairoform countries program. And stay with the NTN Nightly. Up next, Primers Hutchinson is here with the NTN Nouvelle Arquio. The world's climate is changing and that affects all of us. Storms are becoming increasingly intense, periods of intense drought and heavy rain, stress farm animals and destroy our crops. Higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reefs and change the migratory patterns of fish. St. Lucia contributes only 0.0015% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is doing its part along with countries around the world to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate. These efforts are called mitigation. But decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more. We need to adapt. That is, do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual and expected negative effects of climate change and everyone has a role to play. We need to protect our crops, build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events. Learn more about the Government of St. Lucia's National Adaptation Plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow St. Lucia's. Welcome back. We join Primers Hutchinson for the NTN Nouvelle Arquio. We are in the Department of Conservation and Conservation in the Government of St. Lucia at CGS, in the National Television Centre at NTN, Kapozole Nouvelle Arquio, in the Private Hutchinson Centre. The Government of St. Lucia has a lot of delegations from the investment companies for the people who are living on the earth. The Government of St. Lucia has a lot of delegations from the investment companies for the people who are living on the land. The delegation was led by the Chief Executive I started working on the development of Kuldusak and a project to improve the quality of the mother's body. At Kuldusak, the mother's body was observed carefully. So you have to work with the initiative to lead your project of cleaning. You have to make sure that your work is done very well, to clean the whole board of the mayor, to establish a diverse facility. One of the things I have established is a place to play volleyball, a type of placement to play football, and a place to cricket. There is also a tab access for people who want to visit the picnic area, on the side to observe the barbecue. There is also an easy way to avoid it. I started in 2017 and finished in Laos to observe the 14th anniversary of this year. In this program, we will bring more news about the visitation that took place here. The division that will be able to make a commercial recording of this year, which took place since January 19, 1916, will be able to bring good success. I recorded an increase in the number of cases that took place in the last year, from January 24, 2016 to January 18, 2018. This is a division that is a success that has affected the country's economy and also the development, because people are more confident to contribute to the investment because this is a system that can be done more easily. All of this is possible because I just saw that the government established this national concept to improve the competition and the production. I have implemented several forms of salary management that are in place in this case. So, this concept has led the initiative to establish a kai-lo-dias to address commercial cases. The national concept director of the competition and production, Fiona Henson, explained that this kai-lo-dias can be brought at any time that there is an operation. Scylla Henson, you observed the good quality of the money that has been spent because of the disputes that have been raised. This is a recording for Guangkai Konsei, Sharon Dardan Heppelit, who is responsible for addressing criminal and commercial cases. You noticed that before, we had a kai-lo-dias to address commercial cases. This is why we have to be able to use the link and the kai-lo-dias to address the issues of the kai-lo-dias. Now, we have to be careful of the fact that this kai-lo-dias has been very good at working for the common business sector. The registry has also added that in 2018, we have a kai-lo-dias to give a 100 million dollars to kai-lo-dias that can help you find attention for you. After that, I found a kai-lo-dias to judge the sale of the kai-lo-dias and I noticed that it has placed a lot of confidence to be able to continue to claim the kai-lo-dias. Recently, there was an officer who worked in the department who assisted judge to deliver the kai-lo-dias. According to the registry, everything is done well, because we are also able to pay attention to the number of kai-lo-dias in the day and then to judge the sale of the kai-lo-dias. The authority of the two-stakes sector has chosen to implement the operation of the kai-lo-dias to make it as a kai-lo-dias. This is a place that requires a spectacular demand for a united country. The Salah action will continue in many countries. This is an effort to strengthen the foreign language to visit this place for cultural purposes. The Greek authority, Christopher Gustav, said that this place is a beautiful country that is pure and natural and that it is available only in this place to encourage tourists to visit. But if Gustav wants to improve his activity, he can do so. For example, in the last six segments, all these kai-lo-dias are available only in this place. So, what has been done is to ensure that the people who visit this place will be able to see what is happening. Director of the Carnival Legend, Martin Lewis, explained that this carnival is a good carnival because it has done a lot of work to improve the production of carnival products. He declared that he will play the world with a carnival celebration and with a tourist product. Gustav said that he will be well-engaged in the carnival celebration and will play the world. He said that he will be able to participate in the carnival of this place because it is a beautiful place that exists in this place to visit for his carnival. This carnival will be held officially on Saturday, the 26th of May in Sousa-Bla in La Vigée. That's all for today. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you for your invitation. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. The tide for Castries Harbour was low at 1.21 p.m. and will be high again at 7.53 p.m. The tide for Villefort Bay was low at 2.48 p.m. and will be high again at 9 p.m. The seas slide to moderate with waves 3 to 5 feet or 0.9 to 1.5 meters. The sun will rise Friday at 5.35 a.m. And that brings us to the end of the NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7 p.m. with a repeat at 7 a.m. Don't watch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I'm Nisha Charles.