Pictured is Premier and Minister of Finance, Honourable Dr. Natalio D. Wheatley with Leaders of the Overseas Territories and Overseas Minister, Stephen Doughty Shadow at the Joint Ministerial Council in London.

Madam Speaker, I would like to provide this Honourable House with an update on my recent visit to New York in early October where I made a statement to the Fourth Committee at the ongoing 78^th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

Madam Speaker,

I am grateful for the opportunity to share information regarding an upcoming event that holds great significance in our collective efforts to address the challenge of global illicit financial flows. Senior Officials from the Overseas Territories (OTs) and the United Kingdom (UK) and will be meeting here in the Virgin Islands from the 12^th to the 14^th of September 2023 for a meeting on Illicit Finance. This meeting will be co-chaired by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Government of the Virgin Islands.

Since assuming office, my Administration has been active in advancing the interests of the Virgin Islands at both regional and international levels.

The Virgin Islands is among the 16 overseas territories (OTs) and the three Crown Dependencies to have had their place in UK Parliamentary democracy immortalised with a depiction of each of their heraldic shields embedded in stained glass.

On 30^th March 2023, the minutes of Cabinet of the Virgin Islands was published via the Department of Information and Public Relations.

Following a meeting of the Council of the European Union on 14 February 2023, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has been added to the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions (Annex I). In a statement, the EU Council found that the BVI was not sufficiently in compliance with the OECD standard on exchange of information on request (criterion 1.2). It also noted that this is the first time the BVI has been included in the list.

Madam Speaker, I would like to update this Honourable House on relations between the Virgin Islands and United Nations (UN)

Limya Eltayeb, Resident Representative (RR) for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Multi-Country Office (MCO) has wrapped up a 3-day visit to the British Virgin Islands (BVI)