Ladies and gentleman, the signing today of a Memorandum of Understanding between the British Virgin Islands and the United Nations Development Programme is the culmination of a gradual maturing of our relationship over the course of the last three years.

I am delighted to also welcome everyone to this high-level event. Friends, we are living in very challenging and uncertain times and it is critical that as partners we are working together as closely as possible to get through the COVID-19 crisis.

Premier and Minister of Finance of the Virgin Islands, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie, chaired a High-Level Panel on ‘Challenges for Caribbean to Building Back Better from COVID-19’ at the virtually held 38th Session of the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), October 26-28, 2020.

Premier and Minister of Finance Honourable Andrew A. Fahie has congratulated Bishop Ishmael Charles on his appointment as Honourary Consul to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

First of all, I’ll just give an update on the conference I attended of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). This took place in Jamaica between July 3 and 7.