On August 12 of this year, the Government of the Virgin Islands engaged the services of global management consultants - McKinsey & Company – to undertake a Financial Services Management Consultancy. This engagement is to help chart a new direction in the BVI financial services industry, and was as a result of financial services stakeholder meetings held early on in my administration.

1.         Madam Speaker, I move that the Bill entitled, Appropriation Act, 2014, be read a second time and in so doing, I invite this Honorable House to extend its customary courtesies, in permitting me to deliver the Budget Address.

Madame Speaker, with your kind permission, I beg to make the following statement with regard to the Virgin Islands’ first National Risk Assessment (NRA) that is currently being undertaken.