Getting set for GuyExpo 2004
By Michelle Nurse
Guyana Chronicle
August 22, 2004
THE Sophia Exhibition Site is a hive of activity as preparations get under way for the staging of GuyExpo 2004 next month.
The trade fair and investment exposition will be staged from September 23 to 27 under the theme: `The Call to El Dorado 11'.
GuyExpo is a biennial collaborative approach involving the Ministry of Tourism Commerce and Industry, the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) and the private sector that is aimed at offering local manufacturers an opportunity to showcase their products and services to overseas buyers, investors and local consumers.
The GuyExpo committee has more elaborate plans for this year's exposition. These include a revamped exhibition site that will feature an international pavilion that will showcase the products and services of overseas firms, as well as local jewellery, craft and tourism; a Food Court which will accommodate some 30 concessions for food and beverage companies and vendors; a seating pool for about 300 people; and enhanced security.
Chairman of the committee established to manage the exposition, Mr Keith Burrowes pointed out that security is a "major, major element" of their preparations.
"We will not compromise on security. In addition to the Guyana Police Force, we will have a number of private companies operating inside and outside the compound," Minister of Tourism and Industry, Mr Manzoor Nadir assured.
Mr Percy Boyce, coordinator of the GuyExpo committee, assured visitors and exhibitors alike that the committee is finalising arrangements for enhanced security at the site.
Preliminary exercises, including a police walkabout, have already been done, and systems are to be put in place for the movement of money.
Based on the size of the exposition and the number of people expected to visit, other elements of public safety have been considered. Ambulance and First Aid services will be in place, and there will be volunteers and other personnel on the 'floor', and a public address system, Burrowes said.
When the Sunday Chronicle visited the site last week, workmen were busy dismantling buildings and planting poles.
The entire site is undergoing a make-over. According to Boyce, `earth-refreshing' activities are under way at the left entrance - Cabbage Palm Drive - while an internal car park for VIPs is being constructed just beyond the front fence. In the general vicinity, due east, operators are setting up Coney Island.
There is also a "massive clearing" exercise on Cherry Drive, and "almost unserviceable buildings" are being dismantled.
Boyce said that the operations on the roundabout - usually occupied by the food vendors - are being "closed down". The site of the Food Court is also being prepared. There will be no `cool down' carts on the exhibition site, the organisers said.
They are looking towards a September 20 deadline for the completion of all works on the site.
GuyExpo growth
Already, three major local firms, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited (GT&T), Universal Airlines Limited, and the Guyana Oil Company (GUYOIL) have pitched in with sponsorship to help promote the trade fair.
GT&T is the largest official sponsor. The phone company is ploughing some $3M into construction of a `Golden Tunnel' along the main entrance leading to the roundabout; a 16-ft, six-sided sign highlighting the various sectors of the economy, and all the lights; lighting fixtures; and electrical fixtures for the signs and the tunnel. The tunnel will be 12 feet high, 221 feet long and 12 feet wide.
According to the GuyExpo committee, GUYOIL will sponsor advertisements to the tune of more than $800,000, and is the official supplier of fuel and lubricants for the trade fair.
Universal Airlines is the official carrier for GuyExpo this year. Its sponsorship is worth $1.2M in cash, and promotional activities on the airline's flights and at its overseas destinations. The airline will also offer reduced airfares from all its destinations for the duration of GuyExpo.
Since the trade fair and investment exposition began in 1995, it has "grown" in terms of participation of companies and sheer numbers of persons visiting, Nadir said. There were about 47,000 visitors to the exhibition in 2002, and the planners are expecting about 55,000 next month. The planning committee also expects at least 100 overseas visitors.
The demand for space for booths "keeps growing at every GuyExpo," to the extent that in 2000, booths over-spilled the auditorium, and the annex had to be used to house firms, the minister said. And, by August 24, 2002, both exhibition halls were sold out.
This year, the deadline for booking booths expired on Friday, and reports are that both auditoriums have been sold out. The spillover from the auditoriums will be housed this year at the international pavilion.
Though there is no empirical data to show how sales have grown, Nadir said the exposition achieves its purpose to the point where former "bottom-house producers have now become relatively large manufacturers. We do an evaluation at the end of GuyExpo, and most of the persons responding, claim that their sales have increased because of their presence at GuyExpo," he said.
According to Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), Mr Geoffrey Da Silva, though there is no dollar value put on expectations, "since we're in no position to do that kind of assessment properly", his organisation considers the numbers of people and booths.
"The main thing is to get as many people as we can encourage to come...," Da Silva said.
This year, the GuyExpo Committee intends to "consider the impact of such" in a more "structured way," and will not only focus on investments and exports, but the level of awareness raised among Guyanese, about the products and services local companies have to offer.
According to Boyce, "there were situations where (businesses) have come to GuyExpo, and because of the increase in sales that they had after GuyExpo...they now say that they are getting trouble to meet the local demand" because of the large volume of work.
Changing face of expositions
Special concessions have been granted this year to hinterland businesses which have indicated an interest in the exposition, Burrowes said.
And, for the first time since the trade fair began in 1995, the GuyExpo planning committee has invited overseas businesses to exhibit their products at the trade fair.
This initiative was taken against the background of helping to better prepare local companies for regional and international competition in the age of globalisation.
Asked whether such a move would not eclipse the efforts of the local manufacturers and producers, the minister said:
"We have to meet the competition; we cannot hide from meeting our regional and international competition. Today, trade fairs are international affairs. There're also big tourism attractions."
DaSilva concurs.
"What's happening today, in terms of trade expositions around the world, is that they are changing along with the liberalisation and globalisation initiatives under way," he said.
Four Guyanese companies are to visit China soon to participate in the latter's trade fair, that originally targeted only Chinese firms, though buyers and investors were invited. Today, more than 30 countries participate in that exposition.
In the Caribbean region, the Barbados national exhibition, BIMEX, has opened up their exposition to foreign companies. Trinidad and Tobago is also moving in the same direction. The manufacturing association in the twin-island Republic holds an annual exposition, and Guyana is among several other countries in the region that has exhibited there.
"The bottom line is that in order to trade successfully, and build it in a sustainable way, it has to be two-way trade. Of course it has to have some balance to it. It can't be one-way trade.
“Companies have to compete and companies have to cooperate. There will be some (companies) which will be strictly competing with each other; and there are others that will find ways to cooperate.
“Many of the companies coming (for GuyExpo) are looking to do business to business activities, not just to sell to consumers," da Silva said.
He added: "We are making our contribution towards the building of the (CARICOM) single market and economy. We are saying that that has to happen mainly through initiatives of the private sector across CARICOM. Governments can facilitate, support in certain ways, but it is business people who must come together."
Not an overall negative factor by a long shot, da Silva said the participation of the overseas firms can be considered reciprocal.
"If it's not reciprocal, we will have to re-examine (the strategy). So we're not going into this in a naïve way," he told the Sunday Chronicle.
Burrowes feels that with the help of Go-Invest, the committee can "twin the overseas firms with local businesses... For example, if you are in IT, we would twin you with some of the IT people in Guyana. So, in a way, it's not competing, but collaboration...and we will attempt to facilitate that."
He noted, too, that there is also the hope that the foreign firms can find raw material here.
Go-Invest, which ultimately aims to attract investors and buyers, has been tasked with overseeing the overseas component of the exposition.
So far, about 30 firms from Barbados, Antigua, Brazil, India and Trinidad have already registered to participate in the exposition. Guyana's neighbour, 'the South American giant', Brazil, is leading the field with five companies. The products and services they will exhibit range from Information Technology to industrial and consumer products.
Export Promotions Officer at Go-Invest, Uchenna Gibson said Indian firms are putting on show brass plates, napkin holders, and glass products. Barbados is concentrating on services, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sectors, and information technology. St. Vincent will exhibit parboiled rice and pulses.
Other overseas firms will showcase handicraft and wooden furniture.
Buyers and investors and other personnel in the field of business in countries, including Canada, St Lucia, Antigua and Suriname, are also coming for the exposition.
"That remains our major focus: to get buyers and potential investors to come. Now we're adding on to that, those companies that want to come and set up alliances and distributorships here," DaSilva said.
`Doing business in Guyana'
Go-Invest is also organising the half-day investment seminar that will accompany the trade fair.
The seminar will be held on September 24 at Le Meridien Pegasus under the theme: `Doing Business in Guyana'.
Among issues to be considered, Gibson said, are incentives offered to investors, and trade and investment opportunities that exist in various sectors here.
Da Silva pointed out that emphasis will be placed on Guyana's central geographic position and how it is placed in the flow of trade.
The seminar, which is open to the public at no cost, will also feature a question-and-answer session.
While things appear to be moving smoothly along for the September 23 opening, Nadir pointed out that preparations have not been all "sugar and honey".
"I am not satisfied with how we have promoted GuyExpo overseas. We have done a poor job in that area. To deal with an exposition of this kind, you need to have your brochures out at least 18 months before. Our timing was all bad, and we have to significantly improve that," he pointed out.
Da Silva pins the lack of adequate promotion on limited budgets.
He is, however, optimistic that "this thing will grow. We have to have that perspective. We are promoting it more outside than we did before, so we have a long way to go...It's going to take time to build."
The late promotion notwithstanding, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Guyana's missions abroad have been working overtime to ensure maximum participation at GuyExpo.
DaSilva said some of the businessmen and women and investors expected for the exposition, are coming because of contact with "our embassies and consuls".
The Heads of Mission, DaSilva noted, are the ones to face the overseas exhibitors, investors and buyers and "what they hear is `I went to that show in Guyana and man: I was impressed.'
"That makes them feel like a million dollars," DaSilva said.