Madame Speaker, the Ministry of Education and Culture is preparing to introduce an Information and Communication Technology programme into the Grade 5 curriculum beginning Trinity Term 2014-2015.  The programme will be piloted for one (1) year and will be conducted in eight (8) public primary schools in the Territory of the Virgin Islands.

Madame Speaker, I rise to give this Honourable House an update on the Emerging Fellows Award Programme. The Virgin Islands Emerging Fellow Award is a grant administered by the Ministry of Education and Culture on an annual basis to young people, ages 10 – 20 who have excelled in various fields of sports, academics and the Arts who demonstrate a keenness to commit to excellence in their chosen area.

Madame Speaker, it is with a sense of great pride that I make a statement on the Virgin Islands National Youth Policy 2014-2019, which will be laid in this Honourable House today. Madame Speaker, young people are the fastest growing demographic in the world with an estimated 3 billion youth population worldwide by this year, 2015.  This unprecedented youth bulge provides an opportunity for new innovations, energies and a fresh appetite to use creativity as a means to solve some of our most challenging issues.

Madame Speaker, at this time I wish to make a statement on the payment for performance increments for public officers.

In 2014 when many countries experienced financially rigorous times, and governments began to cut their costs by downsizing public offices and jobs, the Government of the Virgin Islands committed to deploying strategies and initiatives to improve the financial and economic future of this country.

Madame Speaker over a year ago, I took up the position of chairman of the Overseas Countries and Territories Association (OCTA). 

Upon taking up this position I set out in my agenda, a number of Objectives for the advancement of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) that I wished to pursue within the framework of the revised Overseas Association Decision (OAD), and across four areas of work that included political visibility, programming, partnership and participation. 

Madame Speaker, with your kind permission, I would like to make the following Statement:

Madame Speaker, the BVI continues to be a well-known and recognised international finance centre. This status comes with certain obligations and responsibilities including, in particular, ensuring compliance with established international standards on regulation, law enforcement and cooperation.

Today marks the beginning of Public Service Excellence Award initiative. This programme is a new and improved form of what was known as the Employee of the Quarter Award.

It is a great pleasure for me, as your Governor, to hand over the Certificates of Naturalisation to a total of 48 people who have made their homes in the Virgin Islands.  Today is your day, marking a key milestone in your quest for British Citizenship.  Many of you will have harboured this ambition for years.  I hope and imagine that all of you are feeling a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in attaining this citizenship status, conferring as it does the right to carry a BVI passport and to apply for a full British passport.

On behalf of the Premier of the Virgin Islands, Dr. the Honourable D. Orlando Smith, OBE who is away on official business, I am delighted to be among the first to officially congratulate you on becoming British Overseas Territories Citizens.

In the last quarter of 2013, I informed you of the launch of a public consultation on beneficial ownership of companies registered here in the British Virgin Islands. I am pleased to report that this consultation is complete. This consultation was in response to a policy proposed by the Government of the United Kingdom to maintain a central registry in which information on the ultimate beneficial ownership of companies would be held. The UK Government’s desire is to see this policy adopted in the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom.