 The government of St. Lucia has been lauded for placing focus on the development of the people by the World Bank. A high-level team this week wrapped up talks with Prime Minister the Honourable Philip J. Pierre, the Cabinet of Ministers and staff of the Ministry of Finance. The World Bank's country director for Caribbean countries says she is impressed with the government's agenda to improve the quality of life, education, health and ultimately create social inclusion. The World Bank official says this is fully in line with the institution's main goal of reducing poverty and realising shared prosperity amongst all peoples. We had very productive meetings with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet on how we are going to partner together on implementing a programme that focuses on improving the economic outcomes in the country on creating opportunities for people and in particular for youth in addressing the main bottlenecks that will once removed will allow the country to improve the future development. Also, how we can work together on further dealing with the COVID pandemic and with helping with the vaccines and improving the overall health system in the country. The meetings also covered strengthening St. Lucia's resilience against climate change and diversifying the economy, such as developing the blue economy, looking into the opportunities in agriculture, looking into opportunities in the digital economy, creative industries, but also modernising the tourism because this is a sector that has been the breadwinner for many people and for the economy in St. Lucia and this sector can probably be even further transformed. First of all, it needs to recover from the COVID pandemic but further transformed to become more water and attract even more tourists to come and see your beautiful island and to enjoy the beautiful nature, the beautiful food and also the beautiful hospitality of the people of St. Lucia.