Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to Project Run­way win­ner Anya Ay­oung-Chee. Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­grat­u­lat­ed Ay­oung-Chee from Perth, Aus­tralia, where she was at­tend­ing the 2011 sit­ting of the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing. Prais­ing Ay­oung-Chee for her bold and unique style and her courage and com­po­sure un­der in­tense pres­sure and scruti­ny dur­ing the fi­nale of Sea­son 9 of Project Run­way, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "Anya is a fine ex­am­ple of the tal­ent of the young peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. She has much to of­fer to the re­gion and the world through her artis­tic abil­i­ties"

Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that al­though on many oc­ca­sions Ay­oung-Chee seemed to be the un­der­dog she re­mained a favourite with the fans. "I un­der­stand that Anya has been de­clared the 'fan favourite de­sign­er' based on votes cast on so­cial me­dia site, Twit­ter-a tes­ti­mo­ny to her vi­va­cious per­son­al­i­ty and her de­ter­mi­na­tion to suc­ceed de­spite sev­er­al set­backs." The PM said Ay­oung-Chee's win should as­sume a greater sig­nif­i­cance as 2011 is the 100th An­niver­sary of In­ter­na­tion­al Women's Day and al­so the year in which the Com­mon­wealth's theme is "Women as Agents of Change." Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she hoped that young peo­ple of T&T use Ay­oung-Chee's suc­cess as mo­ti­va­tion to keep pur­su­ing their dreams and to not let any­one or any­thing dis­tract them from their goals.