NationWIDE

NationWIDETHE OFFICIAL NEWS MAGAZINE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SAINT LUCIA

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WHAT’S INSID

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Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony will today address the historic United Nations General Assembly on its 70th anniversary and tomorrow he’ll address Saint Lucians in New York on what’s happening back home. Never mind reports of a plot on his life (following similar talk regarding the life of the National Security Minister), Dr Anthony has had to live life as usual: taking care of the nation’s business, at home and abroad. He updated the nation through the press last week on the state of the nation’s economy and chaired Cabinet and attended Parliament this week before leading the ministerial delegation to the two UN summits and tomorrow’s Town Hall Meetings in Brooklyn. This Prime Minister is also at the forefront in rallying aid for Dominica after being hit hard one month ago by Erika. He took time to visit the neighbouring island by helicopter (above) hours after the tragedy. He surveyed and assessed the damage done to the Nature Isle and procured its Needs List. He deployed the ‘Defender’ and the Marine Unit to deliver supplies while instructing NEMO to gather all the help and support Saint Lucians can give. The OECS, CARICOM and the entire world community have come on board. Now, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has visited and promised to deliver 300 houses for persons rendered homeless by the tropical storm -- in addition to also helping Saint Kitts and Nevis (See Pages 3 and 11). Truly, never mind the expected opposition criticism, this prime minister is indeed driven by his belief that we are all our neighbour’s keepers. Meanwhile, here’s to another weekend of happy reading and enlightenment about what the Government of Saint Lucia, led by this Prime Minister, has been doing and saying here and there, at home and abroad. And, of course, what our friends in the region and beyond have been doing and saying here. Read, watch and enjoy! And remember: you can also watch NationwideTV on NTN daily and browse the Nationwide Website at stlucianationwide.com

St. Lucia Playing Leadership Role at UN’s AOSIS Ministerial - Page 3

PROUD Enhances Home Ownership - Page 4

St. Lucia-based Company to Purchase Barbados’ Banks! - Page 5

Viva Mexico! - Pages 6 and 10

The High Flyer Lands Again! - Page 7

Deputy PM Addresses Leadership Conference - Page 8

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2015 WEEKLY

Happy Reading! Happy Viewing! Happy Browsing!

Love Thy Neighbour!

NationWIDEPage 2 Saturday September 26, 2015

Editorial

Saint Lucia National Awards 2015

Take part and nominate someone for a National Award.

Details & Nomination Form at: http://governorgeneral.govt.lc/honors-and-awards

Deadline for the nominations is 30 NOVEMBER, 2015

The most severe drought to hit the Caribbean in re-cent years is expected to

worsen despite rains from tropi-cal storms that have replenished some reservoirs. Forecasters say El Nino phenomenon is gather-ing strength and will continue to warm the tropical Pacific until early next year, which translates into sparse rainfall for this largely parched region as the dry season approaches.

“The real concern will come late in the year,” said Adrian Trotman, a forecaster with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorol-ogy and Hydrology. “We are defi-nitely in a period of relief, but it’s quite likely the relief will not be as long-lived as we would like it to be.”

El Nino has produced a quiet hurricane season, which begins in June and ends in November. Only two of nine named storms having dumped significant rain-fall over parts of the Caribbean.

The institute issued a report this month saying that many islands

The Barbados-based CARI-COM Development Fund (CDF) has a new Chief Ex-

ecutive Officer (CEO), who will lead that organisation through its second funding cycle, 2015-2020. He is Rodinald Soomer, an Economist, who was previously employed in the Division of Eco-nomic Affairs with the Organisa-tion of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, from May 2005 to August 2015, where he headed the Economic Develop-ment Policy Unit.

Soomer holds a Bachelors De-gree in Economics from the Uni-versity of the West Indies (UWI) and a Masters Degree in Eco-nomics from Britain’s York Uni-versity with a specialization in Project Analysis, Finance and In-vestment.

His management responsi-bilities with the OECS included oversight of regional sector pro-grammes in agriculture, tourism, statistics and e-government, and a lead role in the preparation of a regional growth and develop-ment strategy.

Soomer started his career with the Government of St. Lucia in the Ministry of Planning, Devel-opment and Environment, where he served for 12 years from 1986 to 1998. During that period, he managed many multi-year pro-grammes of development as-sistance from major donor and technical assistance agencies, in-cluding the British Development Division/DFID (now UK AID), the European Union, Kuwait

Fund, Commonwealth Secre-tariat, Organization of American States (OAS), the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

In the process, he honed his ex-pertise in programme and proj-ect cycle management, spanning many sectors including economic and social infrastructure, tourism and agriculture; and his skills in economic analysis, strategic plan-ning and capital budgeting. In 1998, he transitioned from Gov-ernment, as Chief Economist in the Ministry of Planning, to the private sector for a six-year stint as Chief Executive Officer of the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism As-sociation (SLHTA).

During his tenure, that national

association forged many produc-tive partnerships with Govern-ment, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), international training insti-tutes and development agencies, around key industry priorities including inter-sectoral linkages, visitor safety and security, mar-keting, public awareness, human resource development and tour-ism policy advocacy.

With the CDF, Soomer’s key re-sponsibility will be to provide direction and leadership to the CDF’s planning, strategy devel-opment and implementation pro-cesses. These include identifying funding sources, quantifying re-source requirements, designing strategies to approach potential contributors and development partners, and administering ap-propriate policies for the sustain-ability of the Fund’s capital.

The new CEO will engage in high-level policy dialogue with Member States’ Governments and partner regional agencies in developing programmes and in-terventions consistent with the strategic goals of the CDF, whose mandate is to provide technical and financial assistance to the disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors in CARICOM to en-able them to maximize the ben-efits of participation in the CSME.

He will play the lead role in ne-gotiations with regard to resource mobilization and in advocating the CDF’s vision and mission within the CARICOM region and the do-nor community.

Saint Lucian is new CEO of Caribbean Development Fund

Caribbean braces for worst drought as dry season nears

in the eastern Caribbean remain in drought, and officials warned that the current wet season will likely end before the traditional date of Nov. 30.

Both Barbados and Grenada had their third lowest rainfalls in recent history for August, while Haiti saw up to a 50 percent loss in crops in the hardest-hit areas, according to a report from the In-ternational Monetary Fund.

The neighbouring Dominican Republic saw its agricultural pro-duction drop nearly 11 percent as a result of drought, and dairy in-dustry officials have warned that production could drop 30 per-cent by year’s end. Jamaica also has struggled with crop losses, especially in the island’s eastern region.

“They are suffering terribly,” said Leslie Simpson, a specialist with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Insti-tute. “It’s really going to be more serious as we go into the dry sea-son, not only for agriculture but for domestic consumption.”

Some islands, including the Ba-hamas and Cuba, have had some relief in recent months, and more rain is forecast for them than any-where else in the Caribbean in the coming months.

Severe drought also has ebbed somewhat in Puerto Rico, where officials this week eased austere water rationing measures. How-ever, 19 percent of the island re-mains under an extreme drought and 45 percent more is under a severe one.

The Caribbean Agricultural Re-search and Development Institute is encouraging farmers to find new irrigation methods and better manage existing resources. (AP)

Soomer started his career with the St. Lucia Government.

Take a pause and think about us – who we’ve become. We’ve changed

much. Much we held on to, we no longer do. We no longer see things as they are, only how we want to. Indeed, things we used to do, we no longer do.

Take the truth. We’ve been turned into a people who large-ly believe what we want and not what we’re told. Mistrust has become an instinct. We’ll believe some people and not others, no matter what. Truth doesn’t matter when it comes from certain mouths. If we don’t like you, then be damned.

The Prime Minister gave an upbeat update on the state of the economy four months af-ter the last National Budget. The captain of the ship of state and general manager of the na-tion’s economy offered all the proof and evidence to back his claims, all the while underlin-ing that we’re still not near be-ing out of the woods. But all some heard was his admission to not having the latest up-to-date unemployment figures. And those who couldn’t dis-pute figures asked for evidence.

The President of the Senate, in his other more public role as a talk show host, revealed an alleged plot by four police of-ficers to not only besmirch the Prime Minister’s character, but to get rid of him. He offered all the pointers he could without naming names, revealed their ranks and departments and pointed to some incidents that could easily be verified. But he ends up being accused of ac-cusing the entire police force of plotting a coup against the government and being asked to provide proof by evidence, or resign. Never mind the Prime Minister verified he’d also heard all the talk show host said and wanted the mat-ter officially investigated, some naysayers still question the ve-racity of the claims.

Same with the IMPACS Re-port… The Prime Minister made it clear -- as far back as March 8, 2015 – why it cannot

be published. He explained this national security docu-ment is too sensitive to be made a public document. He noted that its publication -- at this time -- could impair the jus-tice process, as there was need to determine whether there should be public prosecutions. But seven months later we still hear the President of the Police Welfare Association calling for its publication on the basis (of his claim) that the entire Force is bewildered, broken hearted and de-motivated by the con-tents of a report that he and none of his men has seen.

The beleaguered Police Com-missioner exercised his option to seek early retirement after seven months of silence on why he was on extended leave. But even after the Finance Minis-ter made it clear there was no deal on the table, some Doubt-ing Thomases still insist the vacationing Top Cop has been being paid five million dollars to go home.

And in the midst of it all, the Police admitted this week that some most brazen thieves had used a blowtorch to try break into a container containing evi-dence at Police Headquarters.

All this in a country where many of us still think whip-ping a young man tied to a post after a botched theft is a good lesson to him and others think-ing of stealing…

Yes, we’ve changed a lot. To-day, sadly, it’s not about what’s true, but who says it. Facts and figures no longer matter, we want to see pictures. We so no longer believe others that we’ve even started not to believe our-selves, or in ourselves.

But where will we go and how will we get anywhere if we don’t believe anyone -- or in anything -- anymore?

Clearly, when it comes to believing in ourselves, some among us (fortunately not all) still very much need an urgent Operation Restore Confidence.

But not so for the silent ma-jority who can still smell a rat -- and call a cat a cat!

Believability!

NationWIDE Page 3Saturday September 26, 2015

Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony address the United Nations Summit

for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, as part of the 70th Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 70).

The Prime Minister traveled to New York City Thursday to represent Saint Lucia at UNGA 70, which is set to be historic in many ways. His Holiness Pope Francis will also address the Assembly – and so too will Cu-ban President, Raul Castro. And it will be the first time President Castro will be visiting the Unit-ed States as Head of State.

The summit started yesterday and Prime Minister Anthony is to deliver his address today.

Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony

Prime Minister to address UN Development Summit today

The Alliance of Small Is-land States (AOSIS), held a ministerial meeting at

UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday (24th September) to discuss issues related to Cli-mate Change and Sustainable Development.

This ministerial meeting, which was requested by Saint Lucia’s Minister for Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, Senator James Fletcher, was convened to bring ministers from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) up to date on the status of negotia-tions in these areas.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) groups low-lying coastal countries within

Hon. James Fletcher makes a point during AOSIS Ministerial

the United Nations system that have similar characteristics and environmental vulner-abilities, particularly with re-spect to the impacts of climate change.

AOSIS comprises forty-four Member States from the Africa region, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Pacific and South China Sea. Thirty-nine of them are members of the United Nations and they represent roughly 28 percent of the developing countries and 20 percent of the total membership of the UN.

Senator Fletcher, who is Saint Lucia’s Environment Minister, is one of the leading ministerial negotiators for AOSIS, particu-

larly on the subject of Loss and Damage.

He addressed the meeting on this subject and briefed his ministerial colleagues and the Prime Minister of Samoa, who was also in attendance, on the status of negotiations on Loss and Damage and the critical is-sues that remain unresolved for Small Island Developing States.

Among the other issues dis-cussed at the Meeting of AOSIS Ministers -- held on the eve of the UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda -- were Climate Finance, Differ-entiation, Long-Term Goal, the SAMOA Pathway, the Post-2015 Development Agenda and Fi-nancing for Development.

Saint Lucia plays prominent role at UN AOSIS Ministerial Meeting in New York

On Saturday, 26 Sep-tember 2015, the Academy of Letters

of Brasília, of which Brazil’s Ambassador to Saint Lucia Sergio Couri is a member, will induct Honourable Der-ek Alton Walcott, Nobel Prize Winner of Literature (1992), as an Honorary Member.

This Award is representa-

tive of the Academy's recog-nition and appreciation of his extraordinary contribution to Literature internationally.

The Embassy will later to-day host a special ceremony and reception in honour of this acclaimed Son of Saint Lucia. The Governor General and Prime Minister are ex-pected to attend.

Brazil Academy of Letters honours Derek Walcott today

Venezuela’s presi-dent Nicolás Madu-ro visited Dominica

and St. Kitts this week and was received with messag-es of solidarity and offers of support.

Maduro travelled to St. Kitts, where he signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) which paves the way for bilateral relations in a number of areas, includ-ing housing, infrastructure, law and order, education and training, agriculture, ener-gy, technical assistance and health.

He said the support for St. Kitts and Nevis, which is pri-marily facilitated through the Petrocaribe agreement, is in keeping with the vision to “cre-ate a new world based on equal-ity, solidarity and peace for all”.

Prime Minister Timothy Har-ris thanked Maduro for his sup-port, including donating $16 million (US$5.9 million) to pay former sugar workers who did not receive compensation or the full amount owed to them when the industry closed in 2005.

During his visit, Maduro participat-ed in a ceremonial handing of cheques to some former sugar workers.

Maduro travelled to Domi-nica where he offered words of comfort and pledged his country’s support for the is-land’s efforts to rebuild fol-lowing the death and dev-astation brought by Tropical Storm Erika in late August. Venezuela is building 300 houses for people who were displaced by the storm.

“You will be stronger af-ter all of this,” he said at the Douglas-Charles Airport shortly after his arrival. “These hardships are tests, to test our strength.” (More on Page 11)

Maduro visits Dominica and St. Kitts & Nevis

Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony on Tuesday, outlined the

conditions for direct public procurement to resolve is-sues of emergency public matters.

Dr. Anthony explained that the public procure-ment bill will assist in curbing the powers of the Minister for Finance in re-spect to contracts of direct purchase.

“Where you have an im-pending natural disaster, either floods or hurricanes, and in the immediate af-termath, it is clear at that point that you have to move quickly.

“If you have a hurricane, you have to put equipment onto the roads almost im-mediately.

“You may have to build alternative routes and clearly you can’t wait until

you put out bids and ask persons to clear out those routes.”

Dr. Anthony also spoke on the provision to govern Pub-lic Private Partnerships.

“This has confirmed the moves by this government and former governments to embrace Public Private Part-nerships for the develop-ment of the country but to introduce a regulatory and administrative framework for such agreements and for such partnerships.

“You will note such proj-ects can be defined by either the steering committee that is created for it or alterna-tively they can act on behalf of the Cabinet.”

An additional function of the bill, Dr. Kenny Anthony stressed, is to clearly define misconduct and corrupt practices in the public pro-curement process.

PM outlines Public Procurement Bill

conditions As part of the inaugural Business Month activi-ties, Invest Saint Lucia

(ISL) seeks to continue to fulfill its mandate to promote, stimu-late, and facilitate investment.

Natasha Edwin-Walcott, Mar-keting, Policy Advocacy and Communications Manager said the ISL team was present at a special related exhibition at the National Cultural Centre yes-terday, to answer questions and generally interact with invitees.

The Ministry of Commerce, Business Development, Invest-ment and Consumer Affairs designated September as Busi-ness Month, under the theme, "Economic Growth through Business Support - with a focus

on Youth and Women."The expo was part of several

activities organized by the min-istry for Business Month 2015.

Investors, both local and foreign, are being encouraged to reach out to Invest Saint Lucia for guidance on running a

successful project.

Mini services expo held here yesterday to observe Business Month

NationWIDEPage 4 Saturday September 26, 2015

The third phase of the Pro-gramme for the Regula-risation of Unplanned De-

velopments (PROUD) is set to get underway, with the conduct of survey works in five commu-nities at a cost in excess of $2.5 million.

Started in the year 2000, PROUD is intended to give more Saint Lucians the op-portunity to own their homes and the lands they occupy. The programme is operated under the auspices of the Ministry of Physical Development, Housing and Urban Renewal. PROUD III will incorporate the communi-ties of Rock Hall, Aux Lyon, Aux Piquant, Bruce Ville, Can-tonement and Pomme Augier.

The project will involve pe-rimeter surveys, occupational and topographical surveys, production and submission of preliminary and final survey plans, and presentation of plans to the Ministry. Surveys, in the first instance, will be conducted at a total cost of $2,572,530.09. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs, Planning and Social Security,

Hon. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, has hailed the advent of PROUD III.

PROUD has enabled the de-velopment of infrastructure in several communities across the island over the past 15 years. The Programme has also led to hundreds of Saint Lucians go-ing from squatting on Govern-ment lands to becoming legiti-mate land owners.

Said Dr. Anthony, “Through PROUD, we are truly helping to build our communities. Gov-ernment is often blamed for not ensuring that basic amenities are in place, but it is very often the case that this is so because the settlement in question were haphazard and unplanned.

“With this initiative, we have been able to regularize several squatter settlements, and put electricity, roads, recreational facilities, adequate drainage, and proper garbage collection in place. “Just as importantly, we are giving over one thousand citizens the opportunity to own their land. “We are knitting the fabric of the nation by empower-ing ordinary Saint Lucians, in-stilling greater pride and great-

er responsibility in our people. “This Government is trans-

forming the lives of the poor and vulnerable, and taking real, tangible steps to address pov-erty. “The very many successes of the PROUD project are there

for all to see.” A total of 1,038 households will be surveyed in the target areas under PROUD III. It is anticipated that an ad-ditional 650 new lots will be cre-ated for new housing.

La Ressource (Vieux Fort),

Derriere Mome, Bruce Ville, Garrand, Des Barras, La Croix (Laborie), Ravine Poisson, Sar-rot, Bexon, Pays Perdu and Piaye are among the areas that have benefitted from previous itera-tions of PROUD programmes

A housing resettlement project.

PROUD III to enable home ownership and community development

Prime Minster Dr. Kenny D. Anthony is due to address Saint Lucians in New York

tomorrow following two major meetings at the 2015b United Nations General Assembly.

The PM left the island earlier this week for New York, where he is participating – along with other world leaders -- in two in-ternational summits.

Dr Anthony is leading Saint Lucia’s delegation to the United Nations Summit, which is ex-pected to adopt the Post-2015

Development Agenda.The St. Lucia delegation is also

participating in the General De-bate of the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assem-bly, which commenced yester-day (Friday).

As part of his outreach ef-forts to meet and engage Saint Lucians residing in New York, Prime Minister will host a town hall meeting, on Sunday in Brooklyn.

The meeting with Saint Lu-cians will also feature perfor-

mances by Saint Lucia’s Chil-dren of Culture and singing sensation Christine “Chrycee” Charlemagne.

All Saint Lucians in the tri-state region were encouraged to attend the town hall meeting.

The Prime Minister’s delega-tion includes Minister for Ex-ternal Relations, International Trade, and Civil Aviation Alva Baptiste and Minister for Sus-tainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology Senator Dr Jimmy Fletcher.

PM in New York for UN Summit and General Assembly – and to meet Saint

Lucians in The Big Apple!

The Prime Minister and his delegation will meet and address Saint Lucians in New York tomorrow following his summit meet-

ings this week at the United Nations.

Prime Minister and Minister for Fi-nance, Economic

Affairs, Planning and So-cial Security, Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, says Govern-ment is aware that the Fisheries Complex has payments outstanding to fishermen, particularly from Laborie and Vieux Fort.

The Prime Minister has confirmed that the sums will be settled in short order.

“I wish to reassure our fishing community, es-pecially those who earn their livelihoods from the seas off our south-west corridor, that these unre-solved amounts will be paid in the next few days," Dr. Anthony said.

"Over the past few days I have had meetings with the manager of the Fish-eries Complex and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries over the situation confronting the complex.

“I wish to reassure our

Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Eco-

nomic Affairs, Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, has taken is-sue with the Leader of the United Worker’s Party, Allen Chastanet, over re-cent statements he made in his weekly “address”.

According to the Prime Minister, “Mr. Chasta-net’s description of me as “dishonest and delu-sional” is actually an at-tack on the integrity and professionalism of all the public officers who monitor our economy and provide data on the economy’s performance.

“This is really shameful. “He repudiates the figures prepared by these profes-sionals on the economy, but yet when it suits him he quotes other figures also prepared by these same individuals.”

The Prime Minister added, “I can under-stand the deep disap-pointment that Allen Chastanet feels about the recovery of Saint Lu-cia’s economy.

“After all, for weeks he has paraded at home and abroad at every opportuni-ty he gets, to announce that the economy of Saint Lucia is going nowhere.

“The recent news is like a fishbone in his throat. But this is no longer the time for his diet of platitudes.

“He says he has a plan to resolve unemployment, bring investment, but rath-er ominously, cut expendi-ture. All we hear about are plans and plans and plans. But we are yet to hear the details of a single one of these plans. “What are his plans to cut expenditure? He must tell the people of Saint Lucia now!

“How many Civil Ser-vants does he propose to send home? Which services to the people of Saint Lucia does he plan to cut?

“Will he end the pro-gramme to Care for the Elderly? Will he end NICE and STEP?” Which jobs does he intend to termi-nate? Will it be another round of victimization like the Tourism Hostesses in Soufriere?”

The Prime Minister concluded, “It is now clear to all who have examined his academic credentials that Allen Chastanet is not an econ-omist.

“The records will also show that almost every single pronouncement he has made on the econo-my is false or misleading.

“He has proven that he has no understanding of how the economy works, or what is needed to cor-rect the errors of his past Government.

“I have never claimed to be an economist, but at least I have had the experience of managing this economy over sev-eral years, through chal-lenging times and now again, through a period of renewed stability.”

“The people of Saint Lucia must ensure that the management of this economy does not fall in the hands of Chasta-net, especially after this government has brought it back from the brink of collapse.”

PM describes Chastanet statements about economy as shameful!

fishing community that they will be paid in the next few days as the Gov-ernment is now in the process of sourcing funds to meet the outstanding payments.”

The Prime Minister fur-ther explained that the Fisheries Complex is op-erating at a loss, a chal-lenge the new board will have to handle swiftly.

“Since 2010, the Govern-ment of Saint Lucia has subsidized the operations

of the complex by a stag-gering $5 million.

“This situation cannot continue indefinitely and the new board of the com-plex will have to engage the fishing community with alacrity to reduce and elim-inate the losses incurred by the complex. We have to find solutions, because the situation is untenable.”

A new board for the complex will be an-nounced in the coming weeks.

The Prime Minister promised the fishermen their money woes with the National Fish Complex in

Castries will soon come to an end.

PM assured fishermen outstanding payments will be quickly settled

NationWIDE Page 5Saturday September 26, 2015

A Saint Lucian com-pany is about to swal-low Barbados’ largest

drinks company. According to Barbados’ ‘Nation’ newspaper, the local company is named SLU Beverages Ltd.

The St Lucia-registered com-pany helped finance the con-struction of Banks Holdings Limited’s (BHL) new brewery in Christ Church, Barbados more than five years ago. In the process, it became BHL’s single largest shareholder.

Now the Saint Lucia-based

company wants to take over the company which owns several Barbadian companies, includ-ing Banks Breweries, Pine Hill Dairy, Barbados Bottling Co. Ltd and Banks Distribution Ltd.

On Tuesday, SLU Beverages spent $52.6 million (Barbados dollars) in a Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE) “block trade” purchase of 13.1 million Banks holdings Limited (BHL) shares at $4 each.

The shares were reportedly purchased from second largest shareholder Massy Holdings Ltd.

Saint Lucian company plans to purchase

Barbados beverage giant

Banks beer on the brew in Barbados.

The International Finan-cial Corporation (IFC) -- a member of the World Bank

Group (WBG) --and the Govern-ment of St. Lucia on Wednesday kicked off the second of three workshops designed to help gov-ernment officials measure the costs and benefits of tax incen-tives and leverage these incen-tives to promote productive new investments in the Caribbean.

The workshops are supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada (DFATD) and Switzer-land’s State Secretariat for Eco-nomic Affairs (SECO).

Tax incentives have been a key feature of investment promotion strategies for most countries in the Organization of Eastern Ca-ribbean States (OECS). However, there is little evidence to suggest that these incentives correlate with investment flows.

While the region offers some of the most generous incentives packages, there has not been a corresponding increase in invest-ment.

The workshops help key techni-cal personnel in the OECS iden-tify best practices in tax incentive policy and administration and of-fer a framework for analyzing the effectiveness of investment incen-tives in their countries, according to IFC.

“Finding the right balance be-tween tax incentives that attract investors and the need for collect-

ing revenues is essential,” said Dr. Sebastian James, Senior Econo-mist at the World Bank.

He explained, “This can be achieved by having an evidence based approach to tax incentives which helps countries under-stand the impact of tax incentives and their role in attracting foreign investors.

“The goal is to provide govern-ments with all the information they need to develop effective tax regimes that support their local economies.”

Dr. Reginald Darius, St. Lucia’s Permanent Secretary of the Min-istry of Finance, noted that the country is keenly interested in measuring the fiscal costs and socio-economic benefits of tax incentives to ensure the competi-tiveness and sustainability of its incentives regime.

This week’s workshop focused on developing detailed country-specific models to analyze tax expenditures. It also provided OECS participants with training on how to calculate fuel tax, ex-empted goods, as well as how to calculate tax expenditures on in-come tax.

A previous workshop, held in March of this year, provided par-ticipants with simple models for tax expenditure reporting and helped them use national statis-tics to calculate tax expenditure for VAT, customs duties and ex-emptions, and corporate income taxes.

Saint Lucia and IFC cooperating to support effective tax incentives

The workshops aim to help government officials measure the costs and benefits of tax incentives and leverage these incentives

to promote productive new investments in the Caribbean.

The Saint Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) last week hosted a week-long series

of events during the fourth an-nual Saint Lucia Showcase 2015.

Attended by over 120 key UK travel trade contacts, the week comprised a media luncheon, an appreciation dinner, a travel agents event, tour operator’s convention, MICE conven-tion and the Saint Lucia Gala awards.

The fourth annual showcase was held at The Grove Hotel

and Resort in Hertfordshire and hosted by model Annal-iese Dayes of Britain’s Next Top Model fame.

Special guest entertainment was provided by The Voice winner, Jermain Jackman who wowed guests with his incred-ible vocals.

Louis Lewis, SLTB Direc-tor of Tourism said: “The Saint Lucia Showcase has gone from strength to strength and has be-come a permanent fixture in the UK travel trade calendar.

“The quality of meetings and networking is encouraging and demonstrates the love affair the UK has with our beauti-ful island. Our ever-evolving products and on-island services will ensure that 2016 will prove a fantastic year for UK visits to Saint Lucia.”

Dates for the 2016 showcase are currently being finalized.

The Saint Lucia Tourist Board will also be exhibiting at this year’s World Travel Market (WTM) in London.

Saint Lucia Showcase awards partners in London

The fourth annual showcase was hosted by model Annaliese Dayes of Britain’s Next Top Model, with special guest entertainment provided by The Voice winner, Jermain Jackman.

As the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture re-

mains committed in focusing on key issues which will impact on the fundamental foundation of a strong economy and society, creating and strengthening the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem continues to assume increasing significance.

With the St. Lucia Chamber as Host, St. Lucia will once again join millions of people around the world who will be promot-ing and highlighting Enterprise and Entrepreneurial People during Global Entrepreneur-ship Week (GEW) November 16th to 22nd 2015.

During that week a number of events, activities, competitions, showcases and discussions have been planned and designed to bring into focus the need to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystems in St. Lucia which

can translate into job creation and economic growth.

An initiative of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, GEW connects people through activities designed to help them acquire the skills and networks necessary to take the next step, no matter where they are along the startup spectrum.

To kick start the celebration, the first partners meeting was held on Tuesday 8th Septem-ber 2015 at the Bay Gardens Hotel with over 15 partner organization in attendance and committing their support; agreeing to host activities, col-laborating and contributing prizes towards the events of the week.

Many proposals and ideas were discussed and debated with partners agreeing to con-tinue to deliver on their man-date in ensuring that the GEW 2015 achieves its objectives

which are to Inspire, Connect, Engage and Network young and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The beacon events for the cel-ebration of GEW are: Get In The Ring, Fashion Competition and

Link Up.The organizers invite all

agencies, companies and in-stitutions with an interest or a role to play in growing En-trepreneurship, to be part of this global celebration, attend partners meeting held every two weeks at the Bay Gardens Hotel from 9:30am.

All that is required is to plan an activity or attend an event during the week of November 16th – 22nd 2015 and be part of this global event.

Contact the ST Lucia Cham-ber of Commerce at 45 23165 or email gewslu@gmail.com for more information. The next partners meeting will take place in a fortnight.

Saint Lucia to observe Global Entrepreneurship Week in November

Much discussion has been taking place in and across the local private sector in preparation for next month's observance.

NationWIDEPage 6 Saturday September 26, 2015

The Diplomatic Courier

Viva Mexico!Saint Lucia paid tribute to Mexico last week

when the major Latin American nation cel-ebrated its 205th Independence Anniversary.

Leading to the anniversary, Saint Lucia partici-pated in two events in Mexico attended by For-eign Affairs Minister Alva Baptiste and OECS Director general Dr Didacus Jules.

The two top Saint Lucian and regional officials attended a special panel discussion on ‘Mexico’s Foreign Policy Towards The Caribbean’, with the Saint Lucia minister as the Guest of Honour.

Saint Lucia also participated in a special Busi-ness Forum in Cancun, where the largest delega-tion came from the Caribbean.

During the celebrations here, top Saint Lucia

Government officials thanked Mexico for its sev-eral forms of support over the ten years since the Mexican Embassy in Castries was existed.

The Prime Minister however singled out Mexi-co’s funding for the Dennery water project earlier this year, which will work wonders for thousands of citizens on the east coast.

The photos on this page reflect some of the ac-tivities held here to mark the anniversary, espe-cially the special reception hosted by the Mexican Ambassador Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, which was attended by Governor General Dame Pear-lette Louisy and Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. An-thony. (See full text of the Ambassador’s address on Page 10)

NationWIDE Page 7Saturday September 26, 2015

Golden High-Flier lands to official Welcome Back Home at Hewanorra!

Story and Photos by Marius Modeste

LIME earlier this week rolled out the red carpet for the Caribbean’s num-

ber-one female high jumper and LIME brand ambassador, Levern Spencer, following her historic win at this year’s Pan American Games.

Levern received a hero’s wel-come and an award from LIME Commercial Head, Cheryl Fran-cis, after she landed at the Sir George F. L. Charles Airport on Monday.

Ms Francis says LIME was absolutely thrilled to receive the news of Levern’s glorious

win at this year’s Pan American Games.

Ms Francis said LIME was “ex-tremely proud” of Levern and “feels humbled” to have played a part in her “amazing success”.

She said Levern’s recent suc-cess at the Pan American Games “is a phenomenal achievement” that “proves, yet again, that Levern is an exceptional ath-lete, capable of holding her own against the best in the world.”

According to the LIME official, “Her commitment and passion for perfection has earned great reward for St. Lucia.”

LIME proud to back Saint Lucia’s Golden Girl

LIME Commercial Lead, Cheryl Francis welcomed Levern home and presented her with a special LIME award.

World renowned Saint Lucian sportswoman Levin Spencer landed at the Hewanorra Inter-national Airport on Monday afternoon to an of-

ficial welcome. It was her first trip back home following her Gold Med-

al performance at Pan Am Games in Toronto, where she cleared a height of 1.94 meters for the Gold medal.

Leverne was met at the airport by Director of Youth and Sports Jim Xavier, who apologized for the absence of Sports Minister Shawn Edward, who was attending a Cabinet meeting.

Xavier went on to say, “We appreciate what you do for us internationally and at the appropriate time, together with the corporate sector, will give you an appropriate package.”

Also present with the welcome party was President of the National Olympic Committee Fortuna Belrose, who, in her brief remarks, said: “We were there to see her jump.

“Some remarked that for a small island to have two jump-ers in the finals is significant.

“We are proud of you; and the next step is Olympic Gold, which is not impossible for you, Levern.”

The other members of the welcoming party were: John Emmanuel (Public Relations Manager of the St. Lucia Tour-ist Board) and Cheryl Francis (representative of telecom-munication giant LIME), as well as Leverne’s mother Ms Anne Marie Spencer and her Manager Gregory Dickson.

For her part, the ever-humble Spencer thanked local sports journalists for their support in documenting her ac-complishments.

She went on to say, “For the 17 years of representing my country, I want to thank the Honourable Shawn Edward for his support for the short time he has been Minister of Youth & Sport, as well as my District Representative Honourable Alvina Reynolds, members of the Gospel Baptist Church, my mother and my manager -- and most importantly, Al-mighty God, who has never failed me!”

Levern Spencer’s 14 Major Achievements for 2015

1. Georgia Relays (USA) - Gold Medal2. Spec Towns Invitational (USA) - Silver Medal3.Georgia Tech Invitational (USA) - Gold Medal4. Drake Relays (USA) - Bronze Medal5. Jamaica World Challenge - Silver Medal6. Beijing World Challenge (China) - Bronze Medal7. Marseille Meeting (France) - Silver Medal8. Birmingham Meeting (England) - Gold Medal9. New York Adidas Grand Prix (USA) - Bronze Medal10. Madrid Meeting (Spain) - Silver Medal11. Pan American Games (Canada) - Gold Medal12. NACAC (Costa Rica) - Gold Medal13. National Individual Championships (St. Lucia) - Gold

Medal14. World Championship Finalist (China)

NationWIDEPage 8 Saturday September 26, 2015

The Guesneau Slope Sta-bilization and Road Re-instatement Project has

commenced. The project entails the construction of a mechani-cally stabilized retaining wall with a depth ranging between 3 to 9 metres. The road, which was severed during Hurricane Tomas, and accompanying drainage will also be reinstated.

The Guesneau Road connects the Forestierre and Guesneau communities to Babonneau and other parts of the island’s northeast corridor. The road was entirely severed following a

massive landslide that occurred during Hurricane Tomas. A number of homes were also swept away.

Project coordinator for the Hurricane Tomas Rehabilita-tion and Reconstruction project, Jude Regis, said that the inter-vention does not only require the reinstatement of a road, and as such, has utilized technology to aid the construction of retain-ing walls as it was necessary that the slope be stabilized as part of the project.

The Minister for Infrastruc-ture, Hon. Philip J. Pierre ex-

pressed his satisfaction that work to rehabilitate the islands infrastructure after Hurricane Tomas continues. Hon. Pierre also lauded the Hurricane To-mas Rehabilitation and Recon-struction project for ensuring that the newly built infrastruc-ture is better and more resilient.

The project contract was awarded to the firm Construc-tion and Industrial Equipment (CIE), on June 24, following a competitive tender process. The contract is valued at $5,071,231.28 inclusive of VAT. The work com-menced on Aug. 24, and is ex-

Post-Tomas Guesneau Road Repair Under Way

The project will enable the reconstruction of the roadway as well as retaining walls and accompanying drainage.

pected to be carried out over an eight-month period. The project is funded by the Caribbean De-velopment Bank under the Hur-ricane Tomas Rehabilitation and Reconstruction project.

Additional projects to be un-dertaken by the Hurricane Tomas Rehabilitation and Re-construction project are the reconstruction of the Canaries and Thomazo bridges.

In an attempt to improve the safety of both motorists and pedestrians who use the

Bexon Highway, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport installed a num-ber of traffic control measures along a section of the roadway, within the vicinity of the Bexon Primary and Infant schools.

Having been declared a school zone, two speed bumps, two lay-bys and accompanying signs are being erected. The Ministry of Infrastructure will monitor

the effectiveness of these traffic control devices.

The ministry wishes to re-mind motorists and pedestrians that while the control measures are intended to improve road safety, the public can contribute further to road safety by taking personal responsibility to en-sure that all road users are safe.

The Ministry calls on all road users to continue to obey the road signs, drive within the designated speed limits, and exercise great care and caution along the roads.

Bexon School Zone established for better and

safer traffic control!

Road traffic signs and speed bumps have been installed along the Bexon highway within the vicinity of the primary and infant schools.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infra-structure, Port Services

and Transport Philip J. Pierre, delivered the closing keynote address at an international two-day Public Sector leadership Conference earlier this week.

The conference was hosted by the Cave Hill School of Business at the University of the West Indies (UWI), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Asso-ciation for Public Administra-tion and Management, the Ca-ribbean Leadership Project and the Management Institute for National Development.

The theme was “Overcom-ing the Implementation Deficit: From Planning to Performance.”

The conference was designed to equip public sector profes-sionals with highly practical tools and techniques that can help them build the skills and attitudes needed to improve their effectiveness in imple-menting planned activities.

The Deputy PM is a former UWI Graduate and was invited to deliver the feature address at his alma mater.

The two-day event brought together members of the public service from across the com-monwealth.

Presenters were drawn from Malaysia, Canada and across the Caribbean and they shared success stories, as well as cut-

ting-edge information that will help participants better under-stand industry challenges.

Mr Pierre, a former UWP graduate,delivered the closing keynote address on “Bridging the gap between the public service and the people that they serve.”

Deputy Prime Minister addresses leadership

conference

The Water and Sewerage Company Inc. (WASCO) will soon begin updating

customer contact information in order to ensure that all customer information is correct and that customers receive their water bills in a timely manner.

As WASCO works to improve and develop its customer data sys-tem, the updates will help to elim-inate duplicate records and im-proper spellings, and ensure that residence information is correct.

“Customer data deteriorates rapidly. Without regular up-dates, much of [the information] is useless within three years," D’Anthony Charles, Communi-cations and Public Relations Of-ficer at WASCO said.

Zilta George Leslie, Customer Service Manager at WASCO, said that the updating process will place WASCO representa-tives at various locations around the island starting in the north on October 3.

The application period for the Australia Direct Aid Program opened

Monday. The Direct Aid Pro-gram is a flexible, small grants scheme for development ac-tivities in some 66 countries. The emphasis of the program is on alleviating basic human hardships.

For the 2015-16 financial year, the priority areas in-clude public health and non-communicable diseases, ag-riculture and food security, coral reef protection, climate change and fisheries initia-tives, water and sanitation, and other small scale projects.

Gwendolene Roberts, the Policy and Research Officer at the Australia High Commis-sion recently met with poten-tial beneficiaries.

"We are very pleased that you are here Mrs. Roberts, because we believe your pres-ence here indicates the seri-ousness of the Government of Australia to continue to help us," Permanent Secretary in

WASCO to update customer records starting October 3

The Water and Sewerage Company is working to enhance reliability, security and efficiency in its business processes.

The customer data updates segue into WASCo's implemen-tation of a soon-to-be-introduced modern user interface system.

The company states that along with its commitment to meeting customers’ needs, it also aims to push the boundaries of new technologies while continuing

to enhance reliability and secu-rity in the water service busi-ness.

Customers updating their in-formation at WASCO, online, or via mobile locations are asked to have handy their property’s block and parcel number and their National ID card.

Australian Direct Aid program now open for applications

the Ministry of External Af-fairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation, Hubert Em-manuel said.

"We are fellow members of the Commonwealth and it’s al-ways good to see fellow mem-bers coming to help us in the smaller islands.

"The truth of the matter is that there is no shortage of aid to small islands like Saint Lucia, but the difficulty, some-times, is in knowing how to access it."

The opening dates for applica-tions are from September 21 to October 16. (More information can be found on the Australian High Commission website.)

The emphasis of the program is on alleviating basic human hardships.

NationWIDE Page 9Saturday September 26, 2015

The Ministry of Health, through the Division of Human Services hosted to

a three day working session to develop a CARICOM Regional Strategy for the Prevention of Vio-lence Against Children which was launched Tuesday 22nd September at Palm Haven Hotel.

Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Re-lations, Elda Michel stated that in St. Lucia the greatest concern in relation to violence against chil-dren is sexual abuse among fe-male adolescents between the age of 12 – 15 years.

“The problem is exacerbated by the fact that often times the moth-ers of those adolescent girls do not believe that their children are telling the truth about their part-ners in the home. The girls are left to continue the agony of abuse because they fear their mother’s disbelief or even reprisal.” Michel stated.

The “Break the Silence” cam-paign was launched in St. Lucia in 2013 spearheaded by the Divi-sion of Human Services, with the aim of generating greater public awareness and attention to the is-sues of child abuse and violence against children. The campaign focused on encouraging members of the public to speak out against all forms of child abuse.

Health Ministry discusses CARICOM Regional Strategy for Prevention of Violence Against Children

Heather Stewart, Child Protec-tion Officer for UNICEF Eastern Caribbean informed the audience that this workshop is a follow-up to the United Nations study on violence against children in 2012.

The UNICEF Regional Office and its partners from the Global Movement for Children sought to review the advances made by countries in the Caribbean region on the implementation of the rec-ommendations of the UN study.

“At the Caribbean consulta-tion, representatives from CARI-COM member-states adopted the Kingston Declaration calling for the Caribbean community to play an important role in monitoring the implementation of the study’s recommendations and to ensure that prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against children is a priority at CARI-COM’s deliberations on Children.

“And thereafter, UNICEF made a commitment to CARICOM to support the development of a strategy on the prevention and elimination of all forms of vio-lence against children. This work-shop today starts the formal pro-cess of the development at that strategy.” Stewart noted.

The Caribbean is adversely af-fected by the high prevalence of various forms of violence which occurs in different settings, in the home, school, community, institu-

tions of care, sports even during migration with no reduction in recent years. So says Programme Manager for Human Resource Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Morella Joseph.

Dr. Joseph added “Protecting children from abuse and violence should be a key priority for all member states of the Caribbean Community because these issues have a devastating impact on chil-dren threatening their survival,

their development, protection and their participation in society and have serious psychological, de-velopmental and socio-economic implications.

“Conversely successful protec-tive actions increase children’s chances to grow-up physically and mentally healthy, confident and self respecting and less likely to abuse and exploit others.”

The workshop which was also supported by The United Na-

tions Children’s Fund (UNICEF) brought together participants from as far north as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to Suriname in the South.

Special Mention was made of the participation of the represen-tatives from Dominica in light of the recent passage of Tropical Storm Erica which caused severe personal/infrastructural damage as well as loss of life within their country

Participants discussed the “Break the Silence” campaign that was launched in St. Lucia in 2013, spearheaded by the Division of Human Services, with the aim of generating greater public awareness

and attention to the issues of child abuse and violence against children.

Government, through the Ministry of Youth Devel-opment and Sports, is cur-

rently conducting a review of its National Youth Policy, which was enacted in 2003.

The current policy requires up-dating in order to take into ac-count changes in the socio-eco-nomic landscape of the country and recent developments at the international level.

The aim of the project is to devel-op a new policy that is evidence-based and is fit for purpose for Saint Lucia in 2015 and beyond.

Youth Policy expert Dwynette D. Eversley, a development spe-cialist is the consultant working on the project.

She started her professional ca-reer with the Trinidad and Tobago Government in 1983 and built up a record in administration, re-search and development.

She has over 20 years of expe-rience in research and policy de-velopment and has worked with several countries, most recently the Government of the Virgin Islands to formulate national youth policies.

She is a practicing facilitator and lead resource in strategic plan-ning and continues to lead strate-gic planning workshops for agen-cies in the Caribbean region.

She has been trained as a trainer and has designed several custom-ized capacity building interven-tions for public officials and civil society.

Her work for the past 11 years has been in youth development as Caribbean Program Manager and Acting Regional Director for the Commonwealth Secretariat, Com-monwealth Youth Program (CYP), supporting governments and civil society agencies to enhance the social, economic and political par-ticipation and well being of young women and men between the ages of 15 to 29.

Ms Eversley's work has given her familiarity and access to status of young people, and the policies and programming in all Commonwealth Caribbean mem-ber states and associated territo-ries that target young people and their development.

She is passionate about a more

inclusive and participatory agen-da for young people in decision-making and development and was instrumental in sustaining technical and financial support for the establishment of the Ca-ribbean Regional Youth Council in December 2013, which is now headquartered in Saint Lucia.

"Having worked to complete the Commonwealth’s youth policy guide, which is the Plan of Ac-tion for Youth Empowerment and contributed to the development of the CARICOM Youth Develop-ment Action Plan (CYDAP), I am very careful that the new policy for Saint Lucia must reference re-gional and global good practice and standards and be evidence-based, informed by the real situ-ation of youth in Saint Lucia, as a non-homogenous construct," she said.

She continued, "I see the work ahead as very important in hav-ing young people define their own success model for youth and their development.

“I am also of the view the pol-icy implies a commitment of the

ministry to communicate a clear vision on implementation, and targets to be achieved for young people, so that young people themselves know and understood what opportunities and access are available and appreciate how they fit in and can contribute as part of the national development agenda."

Ms. Eversley holds a Master of Science in Public Maritime Administration from the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden; a Bachelor of Arts in Lan-guages and Social Sciences from the University of the West Indies; and a Diploma in Oceans Law and Policy from the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy.

The National Vision Com-mission (NVC) met with the business community earlier

this week, for more dialogue on the national visioning process.

The Commission is mandated to mount a national dialogue as a vital precursor to the articulation of a national vision and national strategy for Saint Lucia.

The business community, commonly referred to as "the engine of growth", is critical to the economic fortunes and overall development of Saint Lucia.

The Commission wanted to dia-logue with private sector leaders to get a sense of the challenges they face, the opportunities they foresee, and the changes they would like to see at the policy lev-el, to facilitate growth in business.

The Caribbean Communi-cations Infrastructure Pro-gram (CARCIP)earlier this

week hosted a train-the-trainers workshop for selected facilita-tors who will be responsible for providing training under the CARCIP Information Commu-nication and Technology Skills Development Program.

Personnel from T-VET and the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development and La-bour provided the training on Tuesday at the National ICT Of-fice located on Bourbon Street.

Among the participants were the School of Arts and Design, Monroe College, the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, and

National Youth Policy under review by regional expert

Malfinis Animation Studio.The Information Communi-

cation and Technology Skills Development Program seeks to enhance employability and pro-ductivity within the ICT sector.

The program also provides free certificate training for un-employed youth from 17-35 years. However, other members of the public wishing to partici-pate will be required to make a financial contribution. Certifi-cate training will commence in October.

For more information visit the CARCIP website or call 758.468.4977. Over 200 persons are targeted for training under the program.

CARCIP hosted workshop for ICT trainers

National Vision Commission dialogues with business community

The dialogue, which was held under the theme “Partnerships for Growth and Development” sought to ascertain the business community’s vision for Saint Lu-cia and how they intend to help make that vision a reality.

Representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, SLISBA, the Saint Lucia Manufacturers Association, Bankers Association, Saint Lucia Coalition of Service Industries, the Private Sector Council and the Insurance Council, among others, attended.

The Vision Commission has been meeting with the business community to better fix their mutual sights on a better future for all.

The policy requires updating in order to take into account changes in Saint Lucia's socio-economic landscape.

NationWIDEPage 10 Saturday September 26, 2015

Protocol has been estab-lished, Dear friends, good evening and welcome to

the house of Mexico in Saint Lu-cia, which is also yours. My wife, the staff of the Embassy and I are all very grateful for your pres-ence here.

I express my special appre-ciation to Her Excellency, Dame Pearlette Louisy, Governor Gen-eral of Saint Lucia and to Hon-orable Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia for being here with us tonight.

I would like to start by send-ing my thoughts to the friends and family of my fellow coun-trymen that were mistakenly attacked and killed last Sunday in Egypt. Also, to our friends of the Commonwealth of Domini-ca, we reiterate our support and solidarity in their reconstruc-tion efforts after Tropical Storm Erika. The

Government of Mexico will support the Government of Dominica by making a cash do-nation and will also offer sup-port to reconstruct one of the most destroyed communities Petite Savanne.

Today, Mexicans all over the world gather to commemorate our 205th anniversary of inde-pendence. For the Staff of the Embassy, this anniversary is also very special since we are celebrating 10 years since we opened our offices here in St Lucia, especially Mrs. Marva Djerel who has been there from the inception of the Embassy.

Saint Lucia and Mexico have been friends since May of 1979, at that time our country did not even have 3 months of in-dependence. In these 36 years many things have happened. We have worked together in the international arena, strength-ening and consolidating our hemispherical and sub regional mechanisms, such as the OAS and the ACS. My country has also been a privileged witness and supporter of the integration efforts of the Caribbean nations through the CARICOM and, in the Eastern Caribbean, through

Following is the full text of an address by H.E. Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, Ambassador Of The United Mexican States on the occasion of the commemorative ceremony of the 205th Independence Anniversary at theOfficial Residence of Mexico, Reduit Rise, Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, Tuesday, 15th September 2015

the OECS.But I can affirm today that

Mexico has never been closer to St Lucia than in the past 18 months. As the Honorable Prime Minister said in April this year, my country has dem-onstrated that it is a strong, reli-able friend and partner of Saint Lucia, and he is absolutely right. Let me briefly summarize why.

During the first quarter of 2014, the three countries that were most severely affected by the trough in December 2013 received a Mexican donation of five hundred thousand US dol-lars to assist with the recovery efforts (they were Saint Lucia, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Earlier this year we donated 7.7 million USD for two infrastructural projects, one in Dennery North for the design and construction of a water treatment plant, and the other in Vieux Fort, towards

the St Jude Hospital. But our co-operation and friendship does not express itself only through the support for big infrastruc-tural projects. We have also ad-dressed technical and scientific cooperation. For instance, last Thursday St Lucia received the last shipment to complete 5000 young coconut plants that are resistant to the “Letal Yellow Disease”. Not only that. A Mexi-can expert has been here for the past three weeks training and helping his local counterparts on the handling of the plants. We have also worked on the training of human resources.

Since 2014, thanks to an agree-ment signed with IICA, Saint Lucian technicians have gone to Mexico to receive training in ag-riculture, especially in the areas of protected and general agri-culture. The collaboration with IICA and Saint Lucia includes pumping approximately 70

thousand USD towards upgrad-ing the two greenhouses that we built two years ago which got damaged due to the heavy rainfall of December 2013. Our goal with this new investment is to use those greenhouses to train technicians and experts in the Eastern Caribbean; howev-er, those who previously gained training in Mexico will have a key role in the process.

Now, one of the objectives of the Mexican Embassy in St Lucia is to bring both countries closer, to fa-cilitate the mutual acknowledge-ment and to ease the interactions. One of the ways to do this is through language, in the case of the teaching of Spanish as a sec-ond language. We have to eradi-cate the idea of a language bar-rier. For this we are working with partners both here and abroad. For instance, we have teamed up with the Sir Arthur Lewis Com-munity College and shortly we will start our collaboration in this matter with the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies. We have here today with us the first of, hopefully, many Mexican teachers that will help us develop the process.

Culture is also a key tool to bring us closer. The most recent project is to showcase a Mexi-can theatrical piece in English this Saturday at the National Cultural Centre at 7:30 p.m. I am pleased to express that the cast and crew responsible for the said production are all young St Lucians and most of them are here with us this evening. Ev-eryone present here is invited.

Ladies and gentlemen, west of the Caribbean Sea, there are approximately 500 mil-lion of Spanish speaking po-tential tourist, customers, and friends waiting. Get to know the Eastern Caribbean States. Take advantage of the oppor-tunity. This year Mexico of-fered scholarships to the East-ern Caribbean, and, in spite of our efforts, only ONE person successfully completed the application process, and she now awaits the response of the

incumbent authorities. She is here with us tonight. I really hope next year there will be more.

The Mexican government is working to get us closer. Last week I accompanied Honor-able Alva Baptiste Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saint Lu-cia, and Dr. Didacus Jules, Di-rector General of the OECS to Mexico, as they were guests of honor in a panel on “Mex-ico’s Foreign Policy towards the Caribbean” in which a discussion was held on Mexi-co’s Cooperation in the region during the first three years of President Enrique Peña Ni-eto’s Administration. During this panel, Foreign Secretary Mrs. Claudia Ruiz Massieu took the opportunity to inau-gurate an office in the Foreign Ministry for non-resident, concurrent Caribbean ambas-sadors accredited in Mexico to provide them with a place to work during their visits to Mexico. Dr. Jules went also to Cancun, where he attended a business forum showcasing Mexican companies willing to invest and trade with the Caribbean. My country invit-ed enterprises from all over the region and I am proud to inform that the Eastern Ca-ribbean had the biggest del-egation. That will hopefully translate into more business and transactions, exchanges between us. One of the key issues was aerial and mari-time communications. While in Mexico, Minister Baptiste headed a meeting with one Mexican company that will evaluate the possibility of a flight from Mexico to here. Saint Lucia needs to be ready for all those interactions. The Embassy is ready to team up with you.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen as you can see, the present of the friendship be-tween Mexico and Saint Lucia is bright. Let’s work to make its future even brighter. I THANK YOU.

H.E. Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno

A maternal and child health patient in-formation booklet

titled "Pregnancy 101" was formally handed over to the Ministry of Health, Well-ness, Human Services and Gender Relations by the Republic of China (Taiwan) last week.

The booklet serves as a pre-natal care guide for expect-ant mothers.

Topics covered in the book-let include checkups, preg-nancy dos and don'ts, a pack-ing list for labor, exercises during pregnancy, discom-

Pregnancy 101Maternal and Child Health booklet launched

fort relief, and healthy nutrition.The booklet was developed

by two Taiwanese volunteers in collaboration with the Minis-try of Health and printed with funding from the ICD.

"This booklet is expected to strengthen maternal health knowledge and provide self-directed learning," Taiwanese Ambassador James Chang said.

"The volunteers have assisted health centers island-wide to promote the use of the booklet which will help strengthen ex-isting maternal health clinics," he added.

Minister for Health, Alvina

Reynolds, lauded the work of the volunteers.

"This year, the volunteers have taken the initiative to develop a patient information booklet for expectant mothers.

“The aim to is to empower women and their partners to be better prepared to face the reali-ties of pregnancy, delivery, and the newborn baby," she said.

"The volunteers have also implemented a number of ac-tivities [in the past] including the weight loss competition cur-rently underway, workshops with clients and staff, and de-velopment of handouts and pa-

tient information booklets."Two hundred booklets were

published for 34 health centers and polyclincs island-wide.

‘Pregnancy 101’ is a col-laboration of the Ministry of Health and the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The Health Minister and the Taiwan Ambassador at the recent timely launch of the maternal health booklet.

‘Let’s Make Our Bright Ties Even Brighter!’

The Diplomatic Courier

NationWIDE Page 11Saturday September 26, 2015

The Diplomatic Courier

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vis-ited Dominica on

Wednesday, where he con-firmed the support of his country, ALBA and Petro-caribe to the government and people of the island.

“Dominica has the support of Venezuela, the peoples of the ALBA and Petrocaribe,” said the visiting president.

He added: “We have come,

through word and action, with the most important heritage of our country and Simon Bolivar. We have come with our helping hand-and-arm support to ac-company Dominica in these dif-ficult times.”

Venezuela recently sent a ship-ment to Dominica and Maduro said his country will also do-nate a total of 300 specially-built ‘Petrocasas’ houses to house those who lost their homes.

Venezuela to donate 300 Petrocaribe houses to Dominica’s homeless

President Nicolas Maduro and Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt

On 23rd of September 2015 the President of the Bolivarian Republic

of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro arrived in St. Kitts and Nevis to promote a Memorandum of Understanding to continue the agreements that have been sup-ported through the Petrocaribe energy bloc.

The Venezuelan Government is developing 64 Caribbean projects through the Petroca-ribe Economic Zone (PEZ).

The Venezuelan Head of State was welcomed by Prime Minis-ter of Saint Kitts and Nevis Tim-othy Harris, who thanked him "continuing with the policies promoted by the energy bloc, born in the year 2005”.

The Venezuelan President thanked the welcome and showed the greatest interest in formalizing the solidarity agree-ments that have been undertak-en in the last ten years, anchored in peace diplomacy that "will al-low our peoples the right to life,

a new diplomacy of integration, of development”, he said.

Both countries maintain bilat-eral agreements on education, energy, housing and environ-ment. With regards to energy, they are planning solar panels on the island through PDVSA Industrial, thus promoting the use of renewable energy.

"A few weeks from the celebra-tion in Jamaica of the 10 years of Petrocaribe, the energy agree-ment is responsible today for the social, political, economic, and energy stability of Latin America and the Caribbean. If someone asks me what Pet-rocaribe is, I would say that is a mechanism of solidarity, re-spect and equal relations”, said President Maduro.

Last Saturday (September 19), Vice President Jorge Arreaza, together with Minister of For-eign Affairs Delcy Rodríguez, attended the commemoration of the 32nd independence an-niversary of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Maduro attends St. Kitts and Nevis Independence

anniversary

Prime Minister Timothy Harris and President Nicolas Maduro

Saint Lucians got a treat of a vis-it from the flagship of the Ven-ezuelan Navy this past week,

truly one-of-a-kind.The ship’s majesty was appreci-

ated from near and far and its his-tory is just as interesting, having visited over 50 countries on three continents and travelled hundreds of thousands of miles since its con-struction in 1978 and it’s commis-sioning in 1980.

Following is a brief diary of the ship’s our-day call at Port Castries, after overnighting on its first day at Pigeon Island.

Friday 18th September - On ar-rival at Castries Harbour last Fri-day morning after being at sea for 20 days, the ship was greeted with a 21-gun Salute before berthing at Pointe Seraphine.

There followed a programme dur-ing which the National Anthems of both countries were performed by the Royal Saint Lucia Police Band, the assembled Saint Lucia Cadet Corps was inspected by Venezuela’s Resident Ambassador H. E. Leiff Es-calona in the company of the Hon. Alva Baptiste, Saint Lucia’s Foreign Affairs Minister.

This was followed by a tour of the ship by Venezuelan and Saint Lu-cian officials and specially invited guests, and then began the guided tours for the general public.

Several hundred school children and adults profited the opportunity to visit the ship during its 4-day stay.

During the course of the day, the Governor-General of Saint Lucia received at her official residence the Ship Commander, who gave her with a gift - a Shield of the School Ship.

The Commander and the Ambas-sador paid a courtesy visit to the Prime Minister, to whom he also presented a gift - a replica of the School Ship.

On Friday afternoon, a fitting tribute was paid to Simon Bolivar and Captain Jean Baptiste Bideau at Place Bideau, where cadets from Venezuela and Saint Lucia laid wreaths in honour of the two men.

Participating in this important activity was the Mayor of Castries,

Mrs. Shirley Lewis, Venezuela’s res-ident Ambassador, and the Captain of the ship, Officers and crew.

Later that evening, Ambassador Escalona hosted a reception on the “SIMÓN BOLÍVAR” attended by the Governor-General, Ministers of Government, the President of the Senate, Venezuelan residents and many friends of Venezuela.

At the same time a group of sixty of the crew took the opportunity to enjoy the nightlife in Gros Islet. It was a fun night for these young people who were more than 20 days sailing.

Saturday 19th September - On Saturday, a group of 21 cadets and crew members did a clean-up of the Vide Bouteille Secondary School grounds, an activity coordinated with Saint Lucia’s Ambassador to Alba and Petrocaribe, H.E. Eustace Vitalis, who participated along with members of the community and the Vide Bouteille Cultural Club.

The Director of the school ex-pressed her sincere appreciation to all who supported and participated in the activity.

Another group of Venezuelan Ca-dets played against a representative Saint Lucia Cadet team in a football match at ‘The Sab’ football field at Vigie with cadets of St. Lucia with the locals going down 8 to 0.

Sunday 20th September - On Sunday, the visitors enjoyed a full day of the beach at the Pigeon Is-land Landmark. Where the crew had an opportunity to climb to Fort Rodney, and be delighted by the spectacular view. They were treated by The Government of Saint Lucia to a local barbecue, lots of drinks and music.

Monday 21st September - On Monday the visitors spent the day in picturesque Soufriere, home of the World Heritage Site - the glori-ous Gros Piton and Petit Piton.

One party, comprising 24 mem-bers of the crew (including Officers and Cadets), accompanied by two Saint Lucian Cadets and led by the Resident Ambassador of the Boli-varian Republic of Venezuela, H.E. Leiff Escalona Barrueta, climbed to the summit of Gros Piton in one hour and forty minutes.

Another group visited the Sou-friere Volcano and indulged in baths at the springs.- On Tues-day morning, the Flagship of the Bolivarian Navy, the AB “SIMÓN BOLÍVAR” AB-11, also known as Venezuela’s "Ambassador without Borders", raised anchor and com-menced the final leg of their 27th International Training Cruise and sailed to their home port in Venezu-ela, after a four day stay in St. Lucia.

Ambassador without Borders, Flagship for Peace!

On Thursday, September 17, Cuban diplomat José Ramón Cabañas presented

his credentials to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, to officially become the first Ambassa-dor Extraordinary and Plenipoten-tiary of the island to Washington in over half a century.

“Exchanging ambassadors since ancient times is a sign of normality and respect among nations,” Caba-ñas told Granma.

He added that the appointment and recognition by the host coun-try, as in any part of the world, im-mediately provides “a greater level of access to the official bodies of the other (state).”

As of now, the diplomat explained, Cuba will be able to directly engage on a range of issues with the major-ity of U.S. government agencies.

Regarding the Cuban diplomatic mission’s short term plans, he ex-plained that they will continue to spread the truth about the island, promote new relations and clarify all the remaining obstacles to normal relations between the two countries.

“In particular we are going to work intensely to implement the agree-ments of the first meeting of the Bi-lateral Commission held in Havana last week,” the ambassador noted, referring to the roadmap outlined to advance the process of the normal-ization of relations between the two countries over the coming months.

According to a statement pub-lished on the official website of the

Cuban Foreign Ministry, the ac-creditation ceremony was held in the Oval Office of the White House, in which the U.S. president received 16 new ambassadors.

During the encounter, the Cuban diplomat and the U.S. president ex-changed views regarding the state of bilateral relations, which were broken off in January 1961 and of-ficially reestablished last July 20.

“The accreditation of the Ambas-sador of Cuba to the United States is another step in the process towards the normalization of relations be-tween both countries,” the state-ment concludes.

Cabañas, who graduated from the Raúl Roa García Higher Institute of In-ternational Relations (ISRI) in 1983, be-came head of the then Cuban Interests Section in the United States in late 2012.

Following the announcements of December 17, 2014, he was one of the participants in the talks held in Ha-vana and Washington for the rees-tablishment of diplomatic relations and the reopening of embassies.

Since July 20, when the reestablish-ment of diplomatic ties came into ef-fect, and through to his appointment last week, the diplomat served as in-terim Chargé d'affaires of the Cuban Embassy in Washington.

During his over 30 year career, Cabañas has served different roles in the North America section of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, as well as in other missions abroad.

He was Ambassador to Austria, representative to the UN agencies

in Vienna, head of the Department of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad and served as Deputy Foreign Minister before his appointment in Washington.

The last Cuban Ambassador in Washington was Dr. Ernesto Dihigo López de Trigo, who was recalled for consultations in 1959. The Unit-ed States has not yet appointed its Ambassador in Havana, a process which must go through Congress.

Several Senators opposed to the Obama administration’s change of policy toward Cuba have said they will block any proposal from the State Department.

At the head of the U.S. diplo-matic mission in Havana is Jeffrey DeLaurentis, in the role of Chargé d'affaires ad interim.

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, received the credentials of José Ramón Cabañas, Ambassador of Cuba

to the country.

Cuba appoints first Ambassador to USA since 1959

The majestic 'Simon Bolivar' docked at Pointe Seraphine in Port Castries, where streams of visitors boarded the Venezuelan naval flagship to visit

with Captain and crew before the vessel sailed back to the Bolivarian Republic on Tuesday after a four-day stay in Saint Lucia..

NationWIDEPage 12 Saturday September 26, 2015

Rallying ‘Round Dominica

The newly refurbished Philip Marcellin Grounds, in Vieux-

Fort is home to two matches in the first round of the 2015 Blackheart / SLFA Football Tournament. On Wednes-day, Vieux-Fort North faced Roseau Valley, while Vieux-Fort south played against South Castries for a spot in the quarter finals.

Parliamentary Represen-tative for Vieux-Fort south, Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony said he is elated that the grounds were com-pleted as promised, and are ready to host Blackheart for the first time.

“Like the people of Vieux-Fort, I am very happy that we are part of the action this year," Dr. Anthony said.

"When I spoke in Soufriere last

year, I did promise to complete the Philip Marcellin Grounds and to work with the organizers of Blackheart to host the tourna-ment this year.

“This is an opportunity not just for the footballers, but for our vendors and other service providers in the south.

“The field is ready, the Philip Marcellin Grounds is lit and final preparations such as the erection of temporary stands and the refurbishment of exist-ing and additional seating is underway.”

Speaking on the impact a home crowd will have on his Vieux-Fort south team, the Prime Minister says he is very

confident in his team’s ability to move forward in the competi-tion.

“Last year, we made it very far against the odds. When Vieux-Fort south played the first match in 2014, I recall that I was one of only two supporters in the crowd. We won and I was able to mobilize more support for the following two matches.

"No doubt, the support of the community will go a long way in boosting the team’s confi-dence. I know they have been in training and have promised to give a good account of them-selves.

“As always, they have my full support and I will be one of the

loudest voices in the crowd on Wednesday.

“I know the people of the south look forward to Wednesday’s encounter and will turn out in large num-bers, as we have done for other events at the Philip Marcellin Grounds.”

The Prime Minister has pledged to continue to orga-nize and support sporting activities in his constituency, as it is a proven unifying tool and also helps develop skills and talent. Dr. Anthony pres-ently plays a major role in ongoing football and cricket tournaments being played in his name.

Prime Minister welcomed Blackheart Football 2015 to Vieux Fort mini-stadium

Darren Sammy has urged fans to attend and give generously to the Domi-

nica Emergency Relief Fund during the Twenty20 charity match to be played today in Bar-bados. The all-rounder will line-up for the West Indies Cricket Board President’s Invitational XI against the University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor’s Invitational XI in the charity match, which begins at 7 pm (6 pm Jamaica Time) at the historic Kensington Oval.

Admission for the event – jointly hosted by the WICB and UWI – is US$10 for adults and

Sammy wants fans to Rally Round Dominica charity matchUS$5 for children under the age of 12.

All proceeds going directly to the Dominica Government to assist with recovery efforts in the island which suffered severe damage to property and loss of life from the passage of Tropi-cal Storm Erika, and continued to be affected by heavy rainfall in the recent days. “Dominica is like a second home to me,” said Sammy.

“I have some great friends and fans there, and every time I go there, the people make me feel like I am one of theirs. “There is so much love and affection and

the folks there just love their cricket.

“I’m just happy to be able to give something back – to offer my time to play in this match as we try to restore the beauty of the Nature Isle and help them get back on their feet.”

The T20 World Cup winning captain added: “What has happened to that country, a country I love. It was hit by the worst disaster in recent histo-ry in the Caribbean. So many people losing their lives, with still more missing and hun-dreds of Dominicans having to evacuate their homes. “It’s

heartbreaking and it is a call to all of us in this region to work more closely with one other.”

According to Sammy, “I have always dedicated my career to the people of the Ca-ribbean, and it would be my privilege to be able to give back with my participation in this upcoming game. God willing, the game will be a great success.”

Each side is expected to field half-dozen current players from the West Indies team currently preparing for next month’s tour of Sri Lan-

ka and a number of celebrity players.

West Indies legend Brian Lara, former Trinidad & Tobago and Manchester United football star Dwight Yorke and Jamaican Olympic medallist Yohan Blake are among the first celebrities to confirm their availability for the match.

New West Indies Women’s captain and world-leading all-rounder Stafanie Taylor and teammate Deandra Dottin, as well as UWI Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, are also expected to make ap-pearances during the match

Saint Lucia’s Darren Sammy will be taking his talents, leadership and sheer en-

thusiasm to Pakistan, or more specifically to Doha, where the inaugural Pakistan Super League is set to be held in Feb-ruary 2016.

The 11-year West Indies vet-eran confirmed his planned in-volvement this week.

Through injury, the big-hit-ting 31-year-old was sidelined from this year’s Caribbean Pre-mier League. Now recovered, the regional Twenty20 captain is preparing to return to action in December, when he will play for the Hobart Hurricanes in Australia’s Big Bash League.

Before that, Sammy has said that he is hoping to play in a charity T20 match in Barbados later this month. The celebrity match will feature current West Indies cricketers, sports stars and other celebrities in a game that is intended to raise funds for storm-hit Dominica.

Sammy, along with West In-dies opening batsman Chris Gayle, earlier this week con-

West Indies fast bowling legend Sir Curtly Am-brose is coming out of

retirement to turn his arm over in support of a very worthy cause.

The icon, who retired from in-ternational cricket 15 years ago with 405 Test wickets and 225 in One-Day Internationals, an-nounced his availability for the “Rally Round Dominica” char-ity match this Saturday.

He will line-up for the Uni-versity of the West Indies Vice Chancellor’s Celebrity XI against West Indies Cricket Board President’s Celebrity XI, which begins at 7 pm (6 pm Jamaica Time) at the historic Kensington Oval.

“When I retired from cricket, I said I would never play again – any form of cricket,” said Sir Curtly. “I came back to play a few games here and there and now. Now, I have been asked to represent the UWI Vice Chan-cellor’s Celebrity XI and I im-mediately agreed to participate in aid of such a worthy cause.”

Admission for the event – joint-ly hosted by the WICB and UWI – is US$10 for adults and US$5 for children under the age of 12, with all proceeds going directly to the Dominica Government to assist with recovery efforts in the island which suffered severe damage to property and loss of life from the passage of Tropical Storm Erika, and continued to be affected by heavy rainfall in the recent days.

“I don’t mind sending down

Sir Curtly Ambrose comes out of retirement to help Rally Round Dominica

an over of two for such as wor-thy cause,” said Sir Curtly, who celebrated his 52nd birthday on Monday. “I was very touched when I heard the news and then saw what happened on televi-sion.

“I knew the storm had passed and then I heard they had a lot of rain, but initially I didn’t re-alize the devastation. I saw the clippings and it was really a tragedy. We all have to play our part to help rebuild the country, hence the reason why I decided to be part of this fund raising event.

“Generally, I am expecting a very good game and I want to urge all the fans in Barbados to fill the Oval on Saturday night. I also want to encourage those not in Barbados to make dona-tions through other means, so

the people of Dominica can get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

Each side is expected to field half-dozen current players from the West Indies team currently preparing for next month’s Tour of Sri Lanka and a number of ce-lebrity players.

West Indies legend Brian Lara, former Trinidad & Tobago and Manchester United football star Dwight Yorke and Jamaican Olympic medallist Yohan Blake are among the first celebrities to confirm their availability for the match.

New West Indies Women’s captain Stafanie Taylor and teammate Deandra Dottin, as well as UWI Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, are also expected to make ap-pearances during the match.

Former West Indian cricketer Curtly Ambrose is paraded round the field after being awarded his knighthood at Sir Viv Richards Cricket Ground on February 28, 2014 in Antigua, Antigua and

Barbuda. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

firmed that he had signed a pre-draft agreement for the first PSL, which will be a franchise-based T20 tournament. Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo are also set to be part of the PSL.

The first edition of PSL will feature five franchise-based teams from the provincial capi-tals – Lahore, Karachi, Pesha-war, Quetta and Islamabad – with prize money of $1 million. The tournament is scheduled to run from February 4 to 24 and will feature 24 matches.

This will be the first major cricket tournament hosted by the Qatar capital, which will also host the 2022 edition of the FIFA World Cup. PSL matches will be played at the West End Park International Cricket Sta-dium, with a capacity of about 13,000, and presumably beamed worldwide.

The logo of the PSL will be revealed in a ceremony on Sep-tember 20, but the PCB said finding stakeholders to bid for the franchises and the broadcast rights is still a work in progress.

Sammy set for Pakistan Super League

Darrren Sammy, Saint Lucia Zouks