Managing Director of EMPRETEC – Guyana Judy Semple-Joseph has told Stabroek Business that the organization’s October 10- 11, 2007 Marketing Practice Workshop seeks to provide a unique opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises in Guyana to build marketing bridges with the region and with the United States and to enhance the marketing prospects of those enterprises where such prospects already exist.
Speaking with Stabroek Business during a telephone interview on Tuesday Semple-Joseph said that the Marketing Practice Workshop was deliberately designed to provide practical information for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who are seeking to position their products on markets in the United States and who may not be familiar with US markets and with the rules and procedures associated with exporting to the United States.
Guyanese-born, United States-based Karen Abrams has been recruited by EMPRETEC to conduct the workshop and Semple-Joseph told Stabroek Business that EMPRETEC-Guyana had been deliberate in its choice of Abrams to conduct the Workshop since the Clark-Atlanta University business lecturer was herself a partner in a business in Atlanta and understood the rules and procedures associated with doing business in the United States. “EMPRETEC understands the marketing needs of small and medium-sized businesses in Guyana and the focus of the workshop is on providing practical support rather than mere theoretical information for those small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who are interested in taking their marketing to the next level.
Semple-Joseph said that part of the aim of the workshop is to work directly with participants, where possible, to help them access markets in the region and in North America for their products and services. “This is one of those opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to benefit from more than just a set of lectures. What EMPRETEC is actually seeking to do is to provide participants in the workshop with the opportunity to interact with someone who is directly involved in a business in the United States, who understands marketing as a discipline and who has been monitoring business developments in Guyana over the years.,” Semple-Joseph said.
During a forum for small and medium sized enterprises organized by the Guyana Small Business Association (GSBA) earlier this week several participants told Stabroek Business that they were seeking to develop marketing strategies to support expanding production but that they were faced with complex problems associated with identifying markets, packaging and shipping and satisfying the import regulations of receiving countries. Semple-Joseph told Stabroek Business that the areas of concern to which the GSBA members referred were among those that the Workshop was seeking to address.
Meanwhile Abrams, who is due to arrive in Guyana on Sunday told Stabroek Business in a telephone interview last Wednesday that her basic objective was to put small businesses in Guyana in a better position to take advantage of the marketing opportunities for Guyanese products in the United States. “There are main stream markets and there are niche markets here and understanding the procedures associated with accessing those markets is one of the keys to taking small businesses in Guyana forward,” Abrams said. The former St Rose’s High School student told Stabroek Business that during the workshop she would seek to provide participants with information that could help them access potentially lucrative Guyanese and Caribbean markets in the diaspora. “Sometimes we tend to forget that there are large numbers of Guyanese and Caribbean people living in North America, that they live in organized communities and that they represent a large market in their own right,” Abrams said.
EMPRETEC is a small and medium-sized business capacity building programme established by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which is currently being administered in several countries worldwide. The programme has been operating under licence in Guyana since June this year and seeks to enhance private sector development in Guyana by providing various forms of technical support to established and emerging small and medium-sized businesses.
