 Good evening to everyone in the studio and at home tuning in tonight on NCN I am Nicole McDonald the senior communications officer for the government. I want to thank the media for being here tonight and welcome you all to the press briefing by the Honorable Prime Minister of St. Lucia Mr. Alan Michael Shastney. The aim of this press conference is to bring information to the public in different forums. The aim of the government is to be very open and honest with our reporting. We would like to bring information to you in all different formats and tonight this press briefing is just the beginning. We will begin taking questions very shortly but first I want to start by introducing the Prime Minister who will make an opening statement about some of the issues I am sure you will have questions about this evening. Ladies and gentlemen the Prime Minister of St. Lucia Honorable Alan Michael Shastney. Thank you very much and good evening Nicole and good evening to the media and good evening St. Lucia. It's been approximately just over a hundred days since we've taken office and a lot has happened in that short period of time. I'm very happy that we have been able to fulfill for the most part our promises on the Five to Stay Alive. The one remaining aspect of Five to Stay Alive which we're working on is the VAT as indicated that we intend to be able to reduce the VAT but in order to be able to do so we have commissioned the report by CDB which had the involvement of the central bank IMF and the World Bank as well as supposed to be CARTAC but unfortunately CARTAC could not be part of the event because they were preoccupied so we have commissioned Ernst and Young to do a tax audit for us. So basically review the existing tax structures that we have and in particular VAT in order to be able to come up with a number that everybody is going to be comfortable with. So we just received the CDB report on Friday and we're expecting to get the Ernst and Young report in another three weeks. Once we have that then I will be able to announce. So I am intending to announce the new VAT rate by the end of October. In getting into office I have to say that probably the thing that confronted me immediately that I was not expecting. I knew it was bad but I wasn't expecting it to be as bad as it was and that is the judicial system. We have over a 4,000 case backlog. We're understaffed in the Attorney General's office. We're grossly understaffed in the DPP's office. We've just recently been downgraded in our human rights ranking and we have the continuation of the impacts and also now landlords. So in my own research we're seeing that the human rights issue has been predominantly driven by the landlord situation and you have to take it from how people perceive it on the outside that while the case has been proceeding it does not appear that the government is putting up a sufficiently good defense and so a lot of international organizations don't just measure us on the result of the case but they look at the ability of the government to be able to try the case. We've had situations where students have left and the defense lawyers have done their job which is in terms of trying to defend their client and as a result of it there has been a lot of delay tactics. So we saw today the comments by Mistress Pratt and I think that I empathize with her in terms of what's taking place but the executive is not involved in the judiciary system. The manner in which the executive is involved in terms of making the resources available to the judiciary system and I think in many ways we have failed the judiciary system and that is why I took the unprecedented step that when I came in and met with the judiciary and realized the complications that had arisen because all the courts were all around St. Lucia and the perception of disorganization that we offered the judiciary to be able to move into the new financial center. So there have been architects and engineers and interior decorators working to determine the quantum it would cost to be able to transform the financial center into the new courthouse. Unfortunately the courts have indicated they don't believe that there is sufficient space in order to be able to cause the financial center building to be a long-term solution to their problem and so they would prefer at this point not to work not to move in to that building but I believe in principle we've agreed that the regional court of justice will more than likely occupy the conference facility upstairs and the last floor of the building and then we will proceed with our plans of moving in the Ministry of Finance departments into that building. We have immediately moved to be able to resolve the issue even if it's on a temporary basis with regards to the DPP. So when we got in it was made very clear that the short list of candidates all were confronted with the same problem that the renumeration that the government was offering was inadequate and therefore none of the candidates would have accepted the job. So with the cooperation of the Chief Justice we've agreed to upgrade the DPP's position to grade 21 and that has given us the ability to appoint a person on a one-year contract. That is an important step because without the DPP a lot of things have come to a grinding halt. So for instance the signing of warrants. Right now the AG is having to do the signing of warrants and the AG doesn't feel as comfortable because she is not okwa with the cases that are taking place as would a DPP would have been. We're also the appointment of a special prosecutor to be able to work to be able to find a solution to the impact report. Without a DPP a special prosecutor can't be appointed. This has been very painful and I have to say to you has caused me much grief and it ought to cause all solutions a deep sense of concern in terms of what's taking place in the judiciary. To complicate matters further is that we also have a very demoralized and depleted police force. I have a request for 30 vehicles or down to two motorbikes. No computers the condition of the police offices themselves the morale of the policeman because of what's been taking place with impacts and I'm sure because of the lack of resources that are being put into this. So the forensic lab is not working and the forensic lab was damaged by an earthquake and requires over 300 to 400 thousand dollars just to fix that aspect of it and then in addition now having to restaff the forensic lab again. So the police and the DPP's office are integral in being able to deliver justice to this country and so without an investigative arm functioning it almost becomes virtually impossible for the DPP's office to work and then when you consider there's only four lawyers in the office and now with one deputy DPP and they're supposed to be 10 and given the level of backlog cases we have you have the Pratt case you have the Go Bar case you have the Greenwood case I can go down the list of unresolved murders that are creating havoc in the reputation of Saint Lucia. What we found when we came in is that the Prime Minister and Cabinet had proceeded to approve the building of a new administrative complex at Golden Hope. So an amount of 17 million US dollars had been approved to open up a new office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet. I have met with the contractors and asked them to change the design concept and to now make that the police headquarters and this government will be doing everything we can right now to be able to bring confidence back both into the judicial system as well as the police force. Now I say that and I want also solutions to appreciate the context in which I'm saying that. We had a budget that was passed in in May and as many of you remember there was no policy debate with the budget. The budget calls for a 65 million dollar deficit well sorry an overall deficit of about a hundred and twelve million dollars hundred and twenty eight million dollars and a current or recurrent account deficit of about fifty four million or fifty six million dollars. What we're finding out is that budget was not very well put together. So for instance let's just take the school system. Only one million dollars had been allocated to repair the schools and Sir Arthur Lucia College alone the lowest estimate we got was three and a half million dollars. The stadium for CIP for CPI was not operational and we had to put money into that. We're finding a whole bunch of areas in which the budgets appeared to have been grossly underestimated. Had a meeting today with regards to the new hospital. The dialysis lab which the room was completed and functional. All that was missing are the chairs and as I had indicated previously it takes those once you order the chairs it would take about six to ten weeks to be able to have that room operational. To find out that monies had not even been allocated to be able to buy that last piece of equipment to make the dialysis lab functional. So we're talking over a million dollars in order to make that to buy to purchase that equipment. There are buildings and equipment in the hospital that have not been ordered. So for instance the hospital is only expected to have 120 rooms which is grossly under the number of rooms that we presently have at VH. So we're now having to find new space to be able to add at least another 24 rooms which is going to be again at an incremental cost. So everywhere I turn I find out that there was inadequate allocations for this budget. So it really means that if in fact the budget had been built realistically the level of deficit would have been considerably more than it currently is. So while creating jobs is my priority and I clearly understand and appreciate during the campaign how solutions are suffering and the relief that solutions want to see. And that is why I have taken upon myself to have as many meetings as the Prime Minister to try to be able to expedite investment in this country. Desert Star is a very ambitious project. I admit that. But I think that the developers themselves have a great sense of confidence. I love the creativity of what they have done and I think to be able to jumpstart solution and to create a buzz about solution that is the kind of project that we need to be able to stimulate. And it has a lot of moving pieces because it has the horse racing track, it has the hotels, it has the marina and it also has a university park. And so it's about putting all those components together and then in part it's very dependent on the Citizenship by Investment program. So we have had a very difficult time in being able to establish control of the government. We've been confronted with some unprecedented things. I don't think there's ever in the history I know of parliamentary government or Westminster government in which an Attorney General would be appointed by a former government. Ambassadors who have contracts that have no out clauses. Investors that were signed up two days before the election with no out clauses in the contracts. And so I've not had the opportunity of moving quicker because obviously there are legal issues and we have to always follow the rule of law. They are civil servants whose contracts were dated in May who were given contracts in May for three years with no out clauses. So we've had to go through a lot of detail to be able to work our ways through this. I want to thank the Attorney General for her cooperation. We've been in deliberations in terms of how do we resolve this issue. I'm certainly hoping that with her cooperation that we can announce something very soon that would be to the mutual benefit of the state as well as preserve and preserving the fact that she has a contract. We have been meeting with the ambassadors. I'm very grateful to a couple of the ambassadors who have recognized that they should resign and that they have offered their resignation. Unfortunately others have not. And so you will be hearing announcements very soon that we're proceeding to make wholesale changes in our embassies. The appointments of boards, some boards didn't want to resign and they took longer than expected to be able to put those board members in. And we've also gone through a process of meeting with board members to ensure that the board members are very much in tune with the policy direction we want to go in. So I have not, and this government has not been in a rush to go and just appoint people willy-nilly. We want to see where we're going to be. So the timescale that I'm working towards right now is that we're using this time right now to develop our overall plan. And so it's the intention of our government that when we announce the budget in April that we will announce obviously a one-year financial budget, but we're going to announce a roll out a four-year development plan for this country. Building on the theme of our campaign which is building a new solution. So we've been working with ministries and with statutory agencies in terms of dealing with their immediate crisis, but at the same time looking as to how we can restructure. There's some very interesting things that were revealed in the CDB report. One, solution is the highest percentage of taxes to GDP. Meaning that we have done a really good job of raising money from taxes. So as a percentage of GDP, we're about 26 percent. And most countries are around 22 to 23 percent. The other thing that was interesting is that we have had the lowest rate of return on government capital investment. So the things in which government has spent its money in have not produced the same level of returns as some of the other countries. And clearly that since our government left office in 2011 that the economic macro numbers for solution have gotten substantially worse than they were before. So it's in light of that that says that what we're doing is unsustainable and that we're going to have to be able to change the direction that we're moving in. And so we've been spending time in building that macro policy and I've put together a group of people who are advising me with regards to the financial direction of this country. Which would obviously include the new VAT and a lot of new forms of taxation. And as I said, the new taxes that we're looking to do are to be less burdensome on the public of solution. To so find alternative ways of taxing different sectors that doesn't put as much pressure on the average person in solution and particularly the more vulnerable people in our society. Healthcare, we have to look at healthcare insurance because what we're doing currently and the numbers that we got today clearly healthcare is not sustainable. We're estimating that just with the new hospital, the Owen King Hospital that it's going to add another $20 to $30 million in recurrent expenditure. You've been hearing the reports in terms of what's taking place at San Jude. So we're not even close to completing San Jude. It is the goal of this government after we've completed the audit to see whether in fact we can get San Jude maybe up and running as quickly as possible. But it may not be to the same scope that it currently with or the ambitions that it had. But we're determining whether in fact that that's feasible or not. So Nicole, it's been a challenging period but I want to say that for the most part we're up to the challenge and I'm very grateful to the ministers for their level of corporation. I'm very grateful to the majority of civil servants who have been working with us diligently in terms of coming up with a new plan for San Lucia and one that we believe that can benefit to all solutions. Okay, thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. I think we'll take our first question of the evening and that will be coming from Miguel Fabri. Miguel Fabri, HGS Newsforce. Mr. PM, I'll get straight to the DSH agreement. $2.6 billion is a large amount. And since the announcement, questions have been raised and there's been a lot of speculation as to the terms of the agreement with the developer. Will the government in the interest of public accountability and transparency make the agreement available to the public? First of all, the agreement that we have is what we call a framework agreement. So there's nothing legally binding in the agreement. A framework agreement basically outlines the terms of what we're looking at and we're actually in that negotiation process. Once the negotiations are completed and we're about to sign on the dotted line, we will make the terms of that agreement known to the public. But right now there is nothing to report other than to say that DSH and the government of San Lucia share a common vision. We've identified a piece of land. We've identified a concept which is the horse racing track, the hotel, the marina, and the university park. And that they're now negotiating what the terms that they would need in order to be able to have that to proceed and it's for government to say whether we can or not. So I would say to you that the agreement in principle says we have no problems with the project pending certain conditions. So for instance, an EIA. I heard the National Trust asking a bunch of questions. The National Trust is involved in the process. Once the plans are submitted to the DCA, that is when National Trust and a whole bunch of other agencies, non-government NGOs, get involved. And like they do in any other project. So we're jumping the gun, but I have to do, and the government has to do its own due diligence on DSH, on the concept. And once we have that deal, we'll come to you. So right now there is no deal other than a framework agreement that there's some basic parameters that we both agree to. And I think it's a very exciting project. And clearly, they have been extremely sensitive to the environmental issues. They have been very sensitive to the land use in that area. But I think that if we can bring this project to fruition, it's going to be a huge feather in the cap of San Lucia. But also a massive stimulus for the South. Can I just to clarify your answer? One second, I'll just get the mic. Sorry, so you have to clarify your first response. So you're saying that before you sign on the dotted line to finalize the agreement, the public will know, will get to know the terms of the agreement before this actually signed and enforce the project begins. The terms normally would come to cabinet first, and once we've, cabinet has approved it, then we'll make those terms known. Our next question is coming from Mr. Dale Elliott, please identify. My name is Dale Elliott from the Independent Film Company. Two questions, Prime Minister. Did you buy a plane? I wish. No, I have not bought any plane. The rumor circulated and said you have a whole plane at VGA board. It's your private aircraft purchased by the government of San Lucia. No, Mr. Marrarez met with me just after we were elected and was very happy to hear about some of the policy positions that we had on aviation. One of them is to make caribbean airlines our national care. And the second one was looking at moving our Sylviation Authority away from ECA and possibly moving it to Trinidad. In order to be able to liberalize flights into San Lucia. And Mr. Rez contacted me because he is now with some partners looking to open up a new airline in San Lucia. And so he brought me because one of the planes that they were considering to fly was the King Air. And also I think in another two weeks time they have the caravans coming down here. He knows of my keen interest in terms of getting this airline off the ground. But the government of San Lucia is not in the market for a new plane. But I'm certainly going to do everything I can to encourage locals or anybody to be able to open up an airline in San Lucia. Second question. How is it that an attorney general who has the prime minister of San Lucia in court, in name Alan Chastney, is the advisor to his government and sits in his cabinet where 100 days tell us your plan. You know, it's a difficult situation. The AG's office can either be appointed in two ways in San Lucia. The person can either be what we call a public servant or the person can be a minister. In this particular case we have a public servant who is the attorney general. And once it's a public servant, a public officer, then the persons who can hire and fire the AG. Well, the prime minister recommends the AG, which the former prime minister did. But once the AG is hired, the only person that can fire the AG is the Public Service Commission. We have a public service commission that is appointed for three years. And that public service commission was reappointed in May by the former government. So the prime minister does not have the ability of firing the AG or moving her in any way. So I am trying to work with the AG because I think that I don't want to speak for her. She can speak for herself. But I think that she equally finds it extremely awkward to be able to sit in our cabinet. Given that there's two cases in which our party was directly involved in, in which she was involved in. So even on the case of the super constituency matter, she finds it difficult to give any advice and has offered no advice. But even more importantly, the AG is a cabinet position. And so therefore it needs to be somebody who has the confidence of the prime minister as well as the confidence of the cabinet. And I don't think that that's ever going to happen in terms of how she was appointed. So right now I have to hope that I can collaborate with her. If in fact I cannot resolve this through arbitration, then I would have no choice than to ask the Governor General to look at appointing Attorney General from a political position. Now that doesn't mean that I don't have to continue paying the AG because the AG hasn't a contract until November, sorry, until January 2018 with no out clause. I mean, I've never heard of this. So I would have to continue paying the AG. But at least she would no longer be the AG. And I can bring in somebody from the political wing. I've tried to not do that. The other thing I think that's important, and again for full transparency, is I've asked the AG whether she would consider becoming my legal advisor and that I would have her work specifically on the constitutional review of this country. The constitutional report that was done, we made very clear in our manifesto that we would like to proceed with the implementation of some of those recommendations. And I think that given that she has a contract, so it means the state is obligated to pay her, that we can use her resources. She sat in the former cabinet. She's been sitting in our cabinet. So it gives her that unique position at this point to be able to work with both sides. So I'm hoping that we can maneuver. But for those people who've been calling me up and telling me I should just fire the AG and just do this and let her take me to court, I don't think that that's the way to resolve the problem. I mean, it's a lot of money that's involved if we were to fire the AG and pay her off. And I just don't think that that's given the financial state of the country, I would find it very difficult just on the basis of politics to be able to make that decision. I think we have a question from the front row. Good evening, Prime Minister. Just identify yourself. Stan Bishop, the voice newspaper. What level of investment were you able to attract for St. Lucia during your recent trips overseas over the past three months? And how far along is the Grindberg case? And do you care to give a statement on that? OK, in terms of my travels overseas, I have gotten a lot less success with the bananas. And so in fact, the Minister of Agriculture just returned this week, and he gave us a report in cabinet. And so I was very encouraged by two things. One, that there clearly is a market in the UK. We met with all the grocery store owners and also with Winfresh, and they're saying that there's a demand, particularly for Windward Island bananas. We've also met with the French. Mr. Joseph went over and met with the producers over in Martinique, and Mr. Joseph and myself flew to Paris to meet with the marketers over there. The marketing group from France were also in the meeting with Winfresh this last week. And so we're starting a program in January where we're going to be exporting 3,000 boxes a week to France to be able to test the bananas out. So it means if we can start getting both markets, both the UK market back, as well as the Martinique, the French market back, we believe that within three years we can have the production of bananas back up to at least 60,000 tons. I mean, we're down to 12,000 tons. And we're only exporting eight from a high in the 90s of over 140,000 tons. That's how bad it's performing. So we've met with the Moroccans in the meeting that we had with them and have gotten a commitment that they're going to continue to supply fertilizer for solution. I have met with a new developer that's coming in out of Canada to do the golf course. Mind you that that was negotiations that were already underway by the former government. But there were a lot of things that were still missing. So I've met with him. And I'm very satisfied that I believe that we're going to start that project in January with a brand new golf course in the old Raffles site with an 85 room hotel. I've met with Mr. Stewart, who I believe received his planning approvals today for four over water suites. And that he is in very advanced stages of putting up a 300 room expansion of the Sandals Grand Property. We've met with the developers from Cognit Bay who are looking at adding anywhere between 150 to 200 rooms. We have met with governments in terms of getting aid money to be able to facilitate the expansion of our infrastructure. So the airport has been priority number one for me. I'm looking forward to meeting with the IFC. But I have to say to the general public, the general framework of what the IFC is offering, I find too expensive. I feel that they're looking for a higher than a $35 tax to be able to develop the airport. And I think that that's excessive, because that money is our money. So if you're going to use tax monies that you can collect yourself and assign those tax revenues to somebody else, that's a loss of potential revenue for you. So those are the core things that we have been working on. We've met with Seaborn, with the idea of getting Seaborn to be able to recommence services into Saint Lucia, into George Charles from San Juan. And what's interesting about Seaborn is that Seaborn now has co-chair agreements with JetBlue, with Delta, and with American Airlines. So it means that a person can leave George Charles and connect with any one of those flights to make it to Atlanta, to New York, to Miami. And it helps augment our current capacity. The most important part of that is, if a person is flying into Miami now and misses that 10 o'clock flight, they have to wait until the following day to be able to make it to Saint Lucia. With bringing the Seaborn flight in, if you missed a flight in Miami, or you missed a flight in Atlanta, you missed a flight in Chicago, you missed a flight in New York, you now can fly into San Juan and still make it into Saint Lucia that day. And it will be about 34 seats coming in. So I'm very excited, and I want to congratulate both the Minister of Tourism and the Minister of Civilation in initiating those developments. In terms of Grindberg, the Grindberg case for all intent and purposes is closed. The case, Mr. Grindberg was asked to put up $750,000, which he never did. And as a result of it, the judges have closed the case. What we're in the process now is how we do recuperate the money that the government has spent. The government has spent in excess of a million US dollars on that case. My understanding, and I'm waiting for the final information on that, is the courts have only awarded Saint Lucia $200,000 something of that money. So the question becomes, how do we recuperate the remaining amount of that money? And so that is where we're at with the Grindberg case as we speak. So as soon as I have more information about the case and how we intend to proceed, I will certainly make that information known to the public. We have a question from NBC. Just identify yourself. During George's NBC television and real FM radio, Prime Minister, you touched on the CIP program as well as the government doing its due diligence. Last week, Richard Federer, who said a shoe and made reference to the head of the chairman of the CIP, Mr. Ryan Dihu, stating that under his watch, Bank of St. Lucia failed due diligence test and that he does not deem him fit to be the chair of the CIP. We also have a situation where a hotelier in the south has been accused of welfare fraud over some, the past few years, Sugar Beach to be particular, and that the welfare fraud would include monies for, sorry, the welfare fraud would include monies for medic aid as well as food stamps. We know that he runs an organization that's under a franchise. Let's say this would have implications for St. Lucia. What assurance would you give St. Lucia that the CIP program would do due diligence in doing investigations that we don't have issues where investors and stuff would tarnish our reputation? Well, first of all, I really would have hoped that Richard would have recognized that the election is over. So the need to continue politicking is unnecessary. Ryan DeVoe is an outstanding individual, a one that has an impeccable track record, and the allegations that he's made against Ryan are false and irresponsible. It's very, very sad. Ryan DeVoe has single-handedly managed the offshore bank of Bank of St. Lucia and has built a very successful entity that would be the envy of most people in this region. And I know that he can defend himself, but he's been thoroughly vetted, and he is incredibly highly regarded by both the legal fraternity here, by banks, and even internationally. In terms of the second one, the Hotelier in the South, he's actually not affiliated to Sugar Beach in any way, other than the fact that he was Mr. Pascal Mavi was the original owner of Jalicy, and Jalicy was sold because Jalicy had gone bankrupt. Mr. Pascal Mavi continues to own land in the back of Jalicy. So when Jalicy was sold, the beach funders, I think about 110 acres was sold with it, and they remain, I think it was about 43 or more acres in the back, which he saloons, which of which there's no hotel development on it. So I don't know the correlation between Pascal Mavi and CIP. So Pascal Mavi does not represent Solution any way, is not currently involved in any development, and has certainly never been vetted by CIP or being asked to do anything by the government of Solution to represent the government of Solution. Okay, we'll now take a question from Mr. David Vitalis, Radio San Lucia. Thank you, yes. David Vitalis, Radio San Lucia. Mr. Prime Minister, just to take you back to healthcare, and these phenomenal costs that we are hearing about that the new hospitals would cause. I think a committee headed by Dr. King actually had the figures even higher for the new hospital in the vicinity of 40 million additional revenue that would be needed. It begs the question, where would those monies come from? We have not even factored in St. Jude's yet. My understanding is St. Jude's is not part of it. This is just the new national hospital. Under the last administration, there was this proposal for healthcare financing, where there would be a bipartisan approach in a committee that would sort of discuss ways and brainstorm over that. Is that a way that your government would want to go? Although that the opposition at that time did not, for various reasons, some of it unexplained, did not participate. But one tries to figure out where, how, what would be the approach? What would be this administration approach to this cost in healthcare? 100% right. The reason maybe, and the numbers might seem a little bit confusing, the 45 million dollars is the actual cost of the Owen King hospital by itself. But remember, there's gonna be a downsizing or the plan calls for downsizing of the VH hospital. So other than running as a polyclinic, there's nothing else that's gonna be operational. So some of the costs that are presently at VH are gonna be transferred over to the Owen King Center. So it means that the amount that we're looking at is around 30 million dollars of net increase. But I agree with you, I think that that number is underestimated. And I'll tell you why. It is, for all of the intent purposes, a huge leap in technology for us. It's, for most part, what we call a smart hospital, meaning a lot of IT, a lot of very highly sensitive equipment. I was astounded to find out that the hospital was wired for 220 electricity, but the equipment is 110. And while you can do that conversion, I can only say to you from my own practical experience that when you do that, it is very damaging to the equipment. And it is worse yet when you're dealing with scanners and things that are highly calibrated that measure things the nth degree. So I believe the actual cost is gonna be substantially higher, because I don't think there's any way possible at this point to determine the maintenance, that those, that new equipment and that type of hospital are going to causes. So the most important question is, how do we solve the problem? So there is no solution to the healthcare, given the existing structure that we have. Because for all intent and purposes, government is the insurer of healthcare. So in essence, we're paying ourselves a premium and that we're paying for the cost of healthcare. And that number is just getting bigger and bigger. And as a percentage of our budget, healthcare and health is growing. With the addition of the two new hospitals, it could be easily determined that healthcare will become the single largest expense that San Lucia has. It's already around 10 or 11% of our cost. Could easily become as high as 17% of our overall cost. So how do we solve that problem? We think that we have to introduce a healthcare insurance program in San Lucia. Now in the Manifesto United Workers Party, it's very clear. We said affordable quality healthcare. So the way that the insurance program would work is, they have some businesses that are currently providing healthcare insurance to their employees. So the company makes a contribution and the staff makes a contribution. They're only buying that healthcare insurance program for the members that work in their company. So imagine if you will, that we have now one healthcare insurance program and that you have over 100,000 people buying into that program. The cost of healthcare insurance will come down considerably. So the idea would be is to work with the private sector and we've had this mentioned with them in that every company now provides healthcare insurance to their staff and there's a joint contribution. The same thing with the public service. So everybody who's employed in the public service will have healthcare insurance. The staff will make a contribution and the government make a contribution. So at that point it's left really for the government to pay for pensioners who've made no contribution and don't have the ability to pay for themselves. People who are unemployed and maybe not forever but for a period of time and then people who are below the poverty line. We believe that once we can do that that means that the insurance company will start paying for the services. So it means the services at the hospital will now be paid for and once there is actually revenue coming in that is relative to the level of expenses that's gonna make healthcare substantially more sustainable. The good news is that when I've been going around to the region, the meeting that we had in CARICOM and also the meeting that we had at the Monetary Council if we now can get the OECS and even possibly CARICOM to start looking at healthcare insurance on a regional basis the number becomes even more significant and when the numbers grow there's two things that could potentially happen or both of them. One is the cost for your insurance comes down or you can increase the amount of coverage the insurance premium has for the same price. So we are going to be looking to implement that as quickly as possible. We are in discussions with the private sector because we have to get their corporation. This is something that everybody has to see the benefit of but in my mind until there is a revenue stream that's outside of taxpayers' money we're never going to have a quality healthcare system and it's certainly not going to be sustainable. Mr. Villes, do you have an answer? One more, Mr. Prime Minister. It's about impacts and it's tool and morale. Not just the police force, but I think the whole country. I've heard economists and professionals talk about the uncertainty. Probably the biggest the biggest threat to development and progress. And I think that is happening on the impacts leading to a lot of rumors about what would happen next. What has happened to your manifesto proposal of the special prosecutor or the special tribunal to consider the impacts report and where to head next? Now it seems very clear that the United States is not accepting some of our processes, especially the coroner's inquest. And all we get from them, at least for the third time over the last four years, is a reiteration of a prosecution in which those responsible must be brought before court where justice is seen to be done. Not necessarily that they have to be charged but that there must be a clear transparent process. I think the next step is what everybody wants to know. Something that would appease or want a better word, the United States. Thank you. So two things. One, the tribunal that we were putting together is very separate from the special prosecutor. So as I indicated earlier tonight, we will be announcing a new acting DPP. Once that acting DPP is in place, that DPP must make the request for a special prosecutor. And I say that the government is ready to facilitate that request. The British and the Americans have also agreed that they would help fund that special prosecutor. So that's one thing aside. The second one with regards to the tribunal, we have been a little bit slow because I've engaged a lawyer here in St. Lucia to write the terms of reference of that tribunal. And that tribunal will be appointed. We're gonna ask the Bar Association to appoint somebody. We're gonna ask the Chief Justice to appoint somebody. And we're asking the affected countries, America, Canada, and the UK and the Europeans to collaborate in appointing somebody. Whether the person comes from St. Lucia or whether the person comes from regionally or somebody comes from the outside, I'm leaving it up to them. And the purpose of the tribunal is to really review the processes that found us where we are. So there are a lot of peculiarities in this particular case. One is that when it was deemed necessary to bring in outside people because there was no confidence in the police to investigate themselves. And one can argue and say, okay, I can accept that, we should bring somebody from the outside. And that legislation was passed in Parliament to allow Jamaican policemen to come here and to be recognized as a local policeman. And so that the work that they would be doing here would be deemed legal. Then there was a departure. What should have happened is that those Jamaican policemen should have replaced the local law enforcement. Now, in any investigation, the law enforcement agency and the DPP's office work as a team. One does the investigation and one does the court case, the trial. And so the DPP's office works with the investigators all along making sure that the way that they're collecting evidence is legal, making sure that the evidence is actually coming to a point where they believe that they have a case. So in this case, the Jamaican policemen did not do that. In fact, they acted independently. And then after they had the report, delivered the report to the Prime Minister, of which there is no role for the Prime Minister in an investigation. The Prime Minister, I don't know what with the report because the evidence that was there to support the report has never come to San Lucia. So I don't know if the Prime Minister himself went to Jamaica and saw the report and given that the fact that he was a lawyer, that deemed by himself that the evidence was sufficient, that he could then come out and make the statements that he made, in which that this was damning information and make all kinds of allegations against the policeman. The only persons that can do that are the court. And in order for the court to pass judgment, it would require the DPP to take the case. So in fact, after he made the information public, he then sent the document to the DPP. The DPP had made requests for additional resources, which he did not receive. More lawyers, which he did not receive. She asked for the evidence. The evidence was never provided to her. So it's when she felt compelled to come out and make a statement that she made the correct statement. That if she used to believe this report, it's a very damning report. And that we have a lot to be concerned about. But in the absence of evidence, it is only hearsay and innuendo. And she's correct, because she's never seen the evidence. So some lawyers have written articles in the newspapers to suggest that the prime minister has prejudiced the case by making public the allegations that he did. I'm not a lawyer. So the purpose of the tribunal is to review what has happened and determine how do we now rectify this? Because the other problem that we have is that there was a trial. In four of the cases, there was a trial. In fact, the fifth one has now been tried, which is called a coroner's inquest. Now, I know the public may think a coroner's inquest is just a corner. No, it's actually a trial with a judge. And in four of the cases, the judge determined, or the court's determined, that there was no wrongdoing. So in essence now, what we're doing is having to reopen the case, and that has never happened in St. Lucia. Now, while legally there are mechanisms in order for that to happen, the question is, was that procedure followed? And how are we now going to bring this case back into play? And so I want to assure the public of St. Lucia, like I have assured the U.S., the British and the Canadians and the Europeans, that this executive will not get involved in the case. That's why we've left it to all the separate entities to appoint who is going to be in the tribunal. And that is why that we have moved very quickly to appoint a DPP, because if we had left it alone, like the former government had, we wouldn't have a DPP. When you go around this region right now, salary that DPPs are receiving are substantially higher than they're receiving in St. Lucia. So on average now, DPPs in this region are receiving upwards of 120,000 U.S. dollars a year. So we've made the commitment. We did the first step of getting an acting DPP in, and that's why we've upgraded the position to grade 21. Cabinet has also approved an increase above and beyond the grade 21 in order that the DPP's position now can go back out and hopefully we can get some new candidates and get a permanent DPP in place in St. Lucia. We've agreed that we're going to commit resources to beefing up the DPP's office. I couldn't do that until there was an acting DPP in place. We've agreed to get the AG's office rebuilt. I need to be able to resolve this matter with the current AG in order that we can proceed with that. I moved very quickly to say that we would be happy to move all of the courts into one building. In the absence of being able to do that, I am having a meeting tomorrow morning with a donor agency in hopes that we can try to get the funds to be able to build the courthouses quickly as possible. So we will do everything on our part to put security and the judicial system as a priority, but we have to resolve it because as I've said when I opened up a conference just recently, is that the most significant thing in running your country is the rule of law, both in terms of the day-to-day life as well as being able to attract investment. So we have to resolve this problem. I can assure the public of this country that my government will make sure that we make this a priority. We have a question from Sherri-Angela from RCI. Sherri-Angela Williams, Radio Caribbean International. I have three questions. They're very short. Okay, so you spoke earlier about the wholesale changes that you need to make at your overseas embassies and that some of the ambassadors have been recalled, but others are not willing to voluntarily... Okay. Yes, resign. Are you planning to fire those individuals and considering the contracts do not have out clauses, do you think that that will be more pressure on the public post? The second one, the second question is, can you please explain the composition of your cabinet again? Because it seems to be very confusing. And the third question is, there have been certain developments at Radio St. Lucia and in particular, there is this news of this memo that has been circulated asking staff not to appear on other shows. Can you tell us what prompted that directive? First of all, let me deal maybe with Radio St. Lucia first. I don't know what's happening in Radio St. Lucia on a day-to-day basis, but I have heard that there are people who are working at Radio St. Lucia who have contracts and are also doing work at other radio stations. So I don't know the context of their contracts as to whether that's permissible or not. But I know in most businesses, if you had a business, certainly you couldn't go in with your competitors on the other side. I think that Radio St. Lucia, I'm expecting a report, hopefully within the next week or two. We appointed a board only for six months to basically do a review and give us a recommendation on Radio St. Lucia. My understanding is that Radio St. Lucia financially is in very bad shape, certainly in terms of the equipment that it's a lot of problems. I don't even think that they are airing on a nationwide basis at this point. And it is one of those entities in which people were given contracts in the month of May for three years with no out-claws, which is adding a tremendous amount of financial burden on that entity. So there is a board, I wait to get the report back from the board to see what the outcome is going to be. In terms of the composition of my cabinet, there's a couple of things. We had to be able to establish a precedent from the onset that this is not business as usual. We have a situation in which since 2010, I think the date is, that we've been running a deficit government. Now what's interesting to note is that in 2002 to 2006, the then labor government ran deficit governments. So John came in, so a budget deficits. So John came in, and it's incredible, immediately was able to reverse that. So in fact, so for 2007, the number came down significantly. By 2008 and 2009, we were running surplus budgets, meaning that we were spending less money than we were actually bringing in revenue. Because of the recession and hurricane Tomas, 2010, 2011 went into deficits. And then in 2012, 2013, the number jumped significantly. So in fact, this former government borrowed in excess of $800 million in the last four and a half years to be able to finance primarily their deficits. So we knew that things were not good. And we know that we've gotta come in and curtail cost and we have to become more efficient. So it was the intention of this government to reduce the number of ministries from 15 to idealistically eight, which is what we've accomplished. And what we've done is we've created clusters. So we have ministry of equity and social justice is really community development and your social programs. And so you're gonna end up now sharing one permanent secretary, one administrative staff, but yet you're gonna have departments feeding into that one entity. And now by bringing the ministers collectively together, it's to ensure that there's a very coordinated program. It's impossible to have one minister who's gonna deal with sports, youth, culture, creative industries, social development, community development, all those things together. So they're operating as a team. So they have the very clear areas of responsibility, but what we're doing is reducing the amount of administrative cost. That cost savings doesn't happen overnight because people are working in a civil service and they have contracts. So by creating now this new footprint, as people resign and people retire and contracts come to an end, you'll start seeing now the civil service will start shrinking in to this new entity. And we're also proposing to take a productive sector. So we've taken tourism, industry and trade, commerce, investment and put them all in one ministry. And so we've been making announcements that we intend to introduce a tourism authority. So that's gonna be an entity that will absorb the Central Tourist Board and the Ministry of Tourism and become an entity by itself. And therefore you will have a minister with a secretary and more likely a chargé reporting to one PS, but the technical work of tourism will be done by this new tourism authority. And the goal is to be able to have this tourism authority funded by a new tax. So the revenue that government is currently spending on tourism, it will maintain that revenue, but it will reduce the cost of running tourism significantly, but give now tourism the autonomy that it needs to be able to get into long-term planning. So I know it's confusing, but I can say to you that there is method to the madness and we're going to try to streamline government as much as possible. And what we have found in the past that the bigger the government is, meaning the more ministries they are, and the more independent those ministries are, the more difficult it is to coordinate a work plan. So as I said, there are two core clusters, your social cluster and your productive cluster. Then there are what we call critical ministries. The Ministry of Health is a critical ministry. The Ministry of Education, critical ministry. We've clustered the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of Justice and put them together. And then I have, normally our culture would have come under the productive sector, but I feel that our culture needed to be separate because we have lost our way in our culture and we want to be able to empower our culture. So in addition to keeping our culture separately, we've also given it crown lands and we've given it resource, meaning the water resource in order that they can do a better job to make sure that we keep our cultural lands. We don't sell them all off and that we can make sure that we resurrect our agriculture sector, fisheries, crops and bananas. And the importance of that is getting money in the rural areas. I mean, we think that the income that our culture generates cannot be generated in any other way. So that is money that we know that's going to be in the rural areas. We also know that it's going to employ people who don't want to work in an office and there are people who actually naturally like our culture, so we want to give it that importance. So those are the ministries and it's a, in me, I see it very clearly and just think of it as being extremely focused, very coordinated and the ministers are getting more and more accustomed to it every single day and it's creating the kind of camaraderie and the kind of focus that I've wanted. To overseas ambassadors. And currently the overseas ambassadors. It is normal that the appointment of ambassadors is the function of a prime minister and the discretion of a prime minister. It would be impossible to be able to implement foreign policy with an entity that we don't have any synergy with, that I don't trust. So let's take New York, I mean, take Washington DC as an example. I've said it publicly. I don't really have a lot of regard for Mrs. Clark as an ambassador to the US. There's nothing in her history that gives me any confidence that she can be the ambassador. And so therefore I think that, typically after an elections, people in those post-resign. And if Mrs. Clark doesn't resign, then I intend to relieve her of her duties. And if she wants to take the government to court, then she can do so. But I think that she'll have a very difficult time improving so. Now, do I expect to fire her and tell her she's gonna stop being paid tomorrow? No. If she get paid her three-month salary, like everybody else, we're gonna move on. But those offices, I think I've been extremely patient. You know, here we are almost three months since we've gotten into office. And I have continued to operate with the offices as best that I possibly can. Now that Sarah has come on as the minister, as the minister in my ministry with oversight of foreign affairs, we're proceeding. You know, I was very grateful to somebody ambassadors who picked up the phone immediately and said, regardless of my contract, I'm prepared to leave. And I'm prepared to stay here as long as the state wants me to be able to work here. And I have a tremendous amount of respect for those people. And you know, when people have that initial discussion with you, it's much easier to be able to work with them. But ultimately you have to put your own person in there. And somebody who shares the same vision that you have for the country. So, I mean, in terms of being able to appoint Minister Guy Mears to being the high commissioner, here's an individual that was the former minister of security, was also a former minister of commerce, was president of the chamber of commerce. And given now with what's happening with Brexit, we believe that there's huge need to get somebody of his caliber and experience there. Is he political? He is political. Ambassadors are political. But he is a political person that we believe that has the capacity to be able to do the job. Okay, we'll take a few more questions because we're running out of time. We have a question in the back. General Novel Choice TV. My question is, what are the arrangements as it relates to the amnesty? And how does the government expect to make up for that shortfall given that the institutions are already cash-strapped? They are cash-strapped and you have to also ask the question is the people who owe the money to the hospitals, are they ever going to be in a position to be able to pay it? And I think that's a very simple answer to that question. The answer is no. Now you have very vulnerable people in our society who take all the money very seriously. And I have personally come across a lot of people who have been to the hospital, cannot pay their bills. And because they're feeling embarrassed every time they go to the hospital to be asked whether they are gonna pay their bill, don't go. And that's the last thing that you want to see happen. So I think that the amnesty is absolutely necessary. It's a humanitarian position. And it was one that would be easily supported. As I said to you that we've gotta solve healthcare in the medium term, the long term. And I'm hoping that I'll be in a position certainly before the new budget to be able to announce how government is going to be able to resolve that. But I think I gave some details in terms of the direction we're looking to go in. Okay, we have a question on the end here, Angelica. Hi, Angelica O'Donoghue Holder from the Star News. Good evening. Three simple questions. One, going back to impact slightly, is it that the said evidence that former Prime Minister Kenny Antony and Mr. Le Corbini mentioned that they had in Jamaica last December, will the DPP's office actively seek to get that said evidence if it is that they don't currently have it? Also, in light of the comments your fellow Prime Minister made in St. Vincent, Dr. Ralph Gonzalez said in regards to Liat, what is St. Lucia, your government's take on putting more of an active role in Liat in continuing services to St. Lucia? And finally, I heard that the former PS from Newton Sports, Dr. Antony George, he's no longer there. Would you be able to say where exactly he is and what was the decision of the rationale behind that move? Okay, really quickly, Antony George was on contract to the Ministry of Sports. His contract came to an end and so he's come back to my office which is where was his substantial post. So that's where he is currently. In terms of Liat, Prime Minister Gonzalez and the other three governments who are financial investors in Liat, I don't know what balance sheet they're looking at. I don't know what they're looking at. I can only tell you from the consumer's perspective everybody still remains very frustrated with Liat. I think it's very clear that Liat as a single entity cannot resolve all of the transportation needs that we have in this region. So my position and the position of my government has been exactly what we've articulated that we intend to meet with Trinidad. I've had a preliminary discussion. I would like to make Caribbean Airlines our national carer, which means that Caribbean Airlines would now be able to fly between Solution Barbados and Trinidad and even go to Puerto Rico and go to Antigua and other places. And I would like to move our civilization authority away from ECA. I'm convinced that ECA cannot be fixed. I think it's been an impediment to competition in this region because it has not allowed other airlines to be able to come in here. So moving our aviation to Trinidad may, not may, will, I believe, encourage other people to be able to open up an airline in Solution or in some of the other islands. The third one was with regards to impacts. The decision really is up to the DPP. Whether the DPP himself will go up to Jamaica and see the evidence or whether, in fact, a special prosecutor would be appointed. And one of the first things that would assume that special prosecutor would do is go in and check out the evidence. And I think once the DPP's office is determined whether the evidence is good evidence or not, will determine their way forward. But I want to make it very clear that the executive plays absolutely no role in that process. Our role is to make sure that there is a DPP. So I'm satisfied that we've now made sure there's a DPP and we're making sure that that DPP's position is sustainable for the longevity. Okay, we'll take two more questions for the evening. One from Miguel and one final one from Dale. Yeah, but if I know we could have asked more than one question, the rules had changed. You asked mine one time. Just one. Just quickly. Going back to what you said about the AG, the possibilities of if nothing can work out at this point, you will ask the governor general to appoint someone politically and you would continue paying off the AG at that time. I mean, it's funny that in 2016, it's first to have contracts with no exit clause. It seems pretty amazing, unusual to me. But isn't the option of buying out her contract and then appointing somebody as the same thing? Two, that the shortfall in revenue, how do we plan to make up for that? I'm hearing talks of a increase in vehicle import duties on used vehicles. And three, there is a talk that a new ambassador to Taiwan is about to be appointed. Can you shed some light on that? If that is the case, could you provide a name of that prospective person? In terms of VAT, I will announce by the end of October what the new VAT rate will be. You will probably be hearing similarly around there in terms of how we intend to finance that. So I have to wait for the report to come in because there's always a discussion in terms of how much economic impact is generated on government not having the money and putting the money back into circulation. And so those are some of the discussions to determine what that shortfall is going to be and how we intend to be able to finance that shortfall because clearly government can't do without the money. I just want to make it very clear that what I have continued to say that we're going to reduce VAT and eventually replace it with a less onerous tax. And less onerous tax means to me a tax that is not going to be hitting the more vulnerable people in our society. So I've not heard of the option of increasing the tax on used vehicles, but maybe I'll recommend it to the Ministry of Finance that's something they can consider. But that's not something that we would be, I don't even think that would come in close into the realm of replacing the revenue that we have for that. And the other question. Attorney General Byout. Attorney General Byout, I mean, look, it's a lot of money. And I would rather, and I think that the Attorney General herself is a very reasonable person, I'd like to think that she is, that this can be a win-win situation. So I'm not looking to marginalize her position. I'm clearly, I recognize that she has a contract. But I would love to get some work out of her that would be to the benefit of the state and everybody else. So I'm still optimistic that that's the case. If in fact we end up appointing another person as a political position, it means the Public Service Commission now will have to find a role for the DPP. So it's not about paying her off at that point. She's still in the contract by the government, but she can no longer perform the role as the Attorney General. The final question, I think he also is about naming the Taiwan. Yeah, I've not heard that. And I can honestly say to you that we have not had any detailed discussions of any final candidates for the UN, for Canada, for Taiwan. The only place that we have officially made a pronouncement or made any application for has been the Honorable Guy Mears and hopefully soon to be High Commissioner Guy Mears. The other ambassador we appointed was Cosmos Richardson that replaced the previous ambassador to the OECS and Caracom. Final question from Bill. In your first 100 days, you abadged the jet set of Prime Minister. Every time we turn around, suppress release from your office, you're on a plane again. One, what's that all about? Two, is it possible for us to have an update of your travels? And my second question to you is, Moifah Shea, you quarreled about the dialysis machines. The new hospital is being built with the same number of dialysis machines as the old hospital. Can we see the 12 dialysis machines remain in aviage and also having 12 new dialysis machines at OEC? Let me, I mean, the dialysis machines is something that's very, very dear to my heart. I had made it an allegation and I stand by that allegation that if the government had wanted to, it could have had the dialysis machines at the new hospital opened sooner. Clearly, since we've gotten to government, we found out they have not even ordered the remaining pieces of equipment. So the more difficult part to build, which was the building, and then all what they call the system that does all the cleaning of the blood, the water system, the filtration, I think it's called the filtration system, in the back all that was ready. So all that had to be happened was these chairs just plugged in. And as we've now confirmed, it would take only six weeks to have those chairs here. There's an argument that you would need more staff in case somebody had an accident. But I'm saying Tapio and VH are in close proximity. So if something was happening to somebody, it's not to say that they have to be rushed very far if they were having a crisis. They could equally have had that problem if they were at their home. So I'm not necessarily buying into that argument. So I believe that it could have been operational. And as it is, I think that when we do make an announcement about Owen King Hospital, that we are gonna have a phased approach to the opening because I don't think that we're in a position to open up that hospital by the end of the year in its full status. So the termination as to whether those dialysis machines are gonna remain at VH after we close, I don't think we have a choice. We don't have a choice. And let's look at what the facts are. The facts is that there is a waiting list in excess of 100 plus people, the 150 people waiting to go in those dialysis machines. The only place in which they are spare time available is Tapio. And the only reason why there's available space at Tapio is because people are having to pay. So people are actually choosing to die because they can't afford to pay. And I can't believe that that's a choice that people would make willingly. And they have found themselves in that circumstance. So I can say to you that I will make sure that those machines remain available because it is just unconscionable to think that we wouldn't do that. And it's to get the dialysis machines at the only King facility up and running as quickly as possible. I had to go and find another million dollars. I made it a priority to go and get that money. And to make sure that those machines are gonna be available by the end of this year. So in terms of the jet setting, look, the fact is that we promise to be transparent. Every time I go on a trip, I put it out to you. Tell you where I'm going. I'm telling you who I'm gonna meet. I come back. Not every single time do I give a report, but for the most part, I've come in, had a press conference and sat down and opened myself up to scrutiny and everything else. And despite what the reaction is, I'm not going to stop that. I believe in being transparent. And if you look at each trip on its own, there are trips in which I have to go to. So going to CareCom's head of government as a new prime minister, okay? Even if I wasn't a new prime minister, it only meets twice a year. It's a meeting I have to go to. Going to the monetary council. Again, new prime minister meeting in Antica to go for the monetary council. Have to go to that. I'm going this week to the UN for the General Assembly. I'm in discussions with several countries in terms of trying to get assistance. The Mexicans, the Moroccans. I'm trying to develop new relationships in Africa to be able to get as much assistance as I possibly can. But I'm also right now officially the minister of foreign affairs. So there's an obligation for me to be able to go there. Then in October, I'm going to be going to the World Bank meetings. In between all of that, there's some crisis. There is this issue that's taking place called correspondent banking. Right now in Belize, money is being flown into Belize because there is no way to be able to transfer monies from overseas to Belize. They're flying it in by plane. So a couple of the heads of government have been asked to take the lead on this issue. When I am coming back from New York, I'm stopping in Puerto Rico. Myself and the governor and possibly one or two other heads of government are going to be meeting with the president of Banco Popular, who is a governor on the Fed board. We're also going to be meeting with the owners of the cruise industry at the FCC conference for one afternoon because we want to be able to alert them to what's taking place with correspondent banking and to let them know if in fact we all start losing the ability to exchange for an exchange, the impact it's going to have on their sector. Why? Because they have a huge lobbying firm. They're one of the best lobbyers against the US government. We're meeting with the airlines to get their support in lobbying. There's a meeting taking place in Miami with all the major suppliers. So it's finding all the people who depend on the Caribbean and trying to get their assistance to be able to change this position out. I've indicated to you the crisis that we have with regards to the justice system. So when I went up to Paris to meet with the banana group, which was paid for by that agency, so it was paid by the Moroccan government, in addition to meeting with Morocco, I stopped off in London and spent literally almost an entire day meeting with the DPP office in terms of assistance that we can get to strengthen our own DPP office. Our friends at the Conservative Party have agreed to send down one of the best AGs England has ever known to be able to mentor our AG's office. So if I don't travel, for instance, to meet with investors, to meet with some of these donor agencies, and we go through the typical process, write a letter, they write you back a letter, you get some more details, and then your minister comes and reports back to you in terms of what's taking place. That timeline, I don't have the comfort of that timeline. So using the prime minister's office and showing up in somebody's office as a prime minister and deroging myself of all courtesies. I've not gone on a state visit. I don't ask anybody to meet me at the airport. I just want to get the job done. And I can say to you, both investors and countries have responded incredibly well to this. So the trip to China, which was completely funded by DSH, I met with construction companies. I met with his investors. I met with all the top breeders of the horse racing fraternity. I realized that this guy is the real deal. So you have people from Ireland, people from Kentucky, people from Singapore, people from Australia, people from New Zealand, people from Russia and South America all in that industry. I met with some of the top casino countries of businesses in the world. And they were all equally compressed. When I went to Morocco, the vice president of the fertilizer company came and met me at midnight. And we were able to get a general agreement in terms of where we're proceeding. So I'm saying to you that I feel that those trips are absolutely necessary at this point. I have a very capable staff here. I have a gentleman in the form of Mr. Ubales Raymond, very experienced. He's overseeing the Ministry of Finance. I have a great minister of economic development. I have a fantastic minister of agriculture. I have a great minister of education. And they're getting on with their job. They know how to contact me. We're in constant contact. We have a fantastic fluid office. We have a new communications director. We're putting together a new communications team. We're going to find every single way and try different ways to be able to commit with you and with the general public. Earlier this morning, I had an incident with one of the journalists. And I was upset because I am tired of my name being tarnished. And I think that the journalists also have a responsibility to be able to vet questions and ask me relevant information. What was being brought up was a situation that has absolutely nothing to do with me. The Prince's visit to St. Lucia is being managed by the Governor General's office. My office only gets the information. The Prince is not staying on any hotel. The Prince is staying on his boat. That information was made public. I have nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of my hotel. And the point I was making this morning, I'm very proud of the fact, and I intend to protect that, that I was Minister of Tourism for five years and nobody can make an allegation that I ever used my office to support my hotel. My sister is running the hotel. She ran a press release. My office contacted her and said they would like her to retract that letter because we felt it was confusing. She did so and it was cleared. So to come and ask me a question or even to put up information to suggest that the Prime Minister is using his position to influence Prince Harry to go and stay at his hotel is irresponsible. And I expect only stuff like that from the Labour Party. But I don't expect that from journalists. And so I'm going to be open and I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be open and honest with the public. And any question is a fair question. But please don't disrespect me. Don't try to tarnish my name. Because what we're dealing with here is too important. I take that very seriously. And so leading up to elections, the opposition can say what they want to say. Richard can say what he wants to say on a show. Tell me the Prime, provide the proof. Every day it's a different allegation. I own a plane, I do this, I do that. But look, I'm appealing to all of us, solutions in crisis. The judicial system is on the verge of collapse. Our justice system, our financial economy. And I am not in any way intimidated or fearful of meeting those challenges. But it's going to require everybody's support and for everybody to do their job. And I want you to do your job. I want you to challenge me on everything and ask me and this government to explain every policy that we have. That's fair game. And I'm open to that. But don't come and ask me a question that is only intended to malign me or my party. Because I will take that very seriously. I was going to ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, for final statements. But I think that is definitely an apt way to end this press briefing. I would like to thank the media for coming here this evening. Thank you so much for your great questions. I think the public is definitely more informed based on what you asked this evening. And definitely, like I said at the opening, this is going to be a regular thing. We want to make sure that the information is forthcoming and have as much press briefings as possible, not just with the Prime Minister, but with the other ministers as well. So let's make this a regular briefing room exercise. I hope you guys continue to attend in such great numbers. I want to thank the solution public for listening this evening, whether online, abroad, wherever you are. Thank you so much for tuning in. I want to thank the Prime Minister of San Lucia, Mr. Allen Michael Shafsi. Thank you so much for staying with us this evening and taking all these questions from the media. Thank you, San Lucia. Good night.