Mister Speaker, I rise on this occasion out of a deep concern for the welfare of our youth, especially our women and young girls, whom we refer to as the Radiant Daughters of our Virgin Islands.

Mister Speaker, I will now give a statement on the new era of accountability and prosperity through good governance.

Mister Speaker, I would like to provide Honourable Members, and by extension the public, with an update on the work being done by your Virgin Islands Government to access the offer by the UK Government of Guarantees for Loans to facilitate recovery and development work following the devastating hurricanes of 2017.

Mister Speaker, I will now speak on moving forward with medical school in this Territory.

Mister Speaker, I would like to make this statement by way of an update on the French listing of BVI on its list of non-cooperative states and territories in tax matters.

Mister Speaker, placing Virgin Islanders at the centre of development activities through expanding access to educational opportunities continues to be a central focus of this Government’s agenda. The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) continues to expand its offerings through various Memoranda of Understanding. Today I am pleased to give a statement on three recent programmes in which the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) has been engaged.

Minister Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on some education matters. The main areas of focus during our professional development sessions is physical literacy for all and critical literacy.  To promote physical literacy, Sports for Life Team and the BVI Olympic Committee graciously donated physical education equipment to the schools. I express my sincere appreciation to their generous donations.  In addition to the training that took place in August and November 2019, the final training is scheduled for 4^th – 15^th May, 2020. We also held our annual Excellence in Teaching workshops for teachers on Tortola and Virgin Gorda also as a part of on-going professional development.

Mister Speaker, my statement is titled. Thank you God.  Mister Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to thank God for keeping His guiding hands on this Government, the unconventional Government. In other words, we walk by faith and not by sight—this is what we mean by unconventional. God lead, we trust Him and follow!

Two local institutions in the Virgin Islands were gifted with gardening equipment and supplies as a result of their similar requests to an Honourable Member.

The Honourable Shereen D. Flax-Charles is advising the residents of Anegada that she will be visiting on Friday, 14th February, 2020.