Permanent GuyExpo Secretariat set up

Overseas participation `an area in which we can improve’ – Prashad

Following persistent criticism of limited planning time and other constraints associated with the staging of GuyExpo, Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad has announced the setting up of a full-time Secretariat to plan and execute the event. An Administrator and a Deputy Administrator for the Secretariat will be named shortly.

Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad
Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad

Prashad told Stabroek Business that the decision to create a full-time Secretariat to manage that national trade exposition, made at a meeting last Friday immediately prior to his interview with this newspaper, was an acknowledgement that some of the shortcomings that have been associated with the planning have been recognized. Some of these have been attributed to the limited time allowed for putting together such a major undertaking. “This year, for example, we ought to have had all the booths positioned properly in terms of the way we envisaged it at least two weeks before the start of the exhibition. That did not happen because of the short time which we had and we believe that there is room for improvement in that area,” Prashad said.

This year some exhibitors cited less overseas participation than expected as one of the critical weaknesses of the event but Prashad said that the recently concluded event was once again a success. He said that he had been approached by “a delegation” seeking to have GuyExpo held over but that by the end of six days the staff assigned to the event had been “fully stretched.” According to the Minister, GuyExpo had by then acknowledged its objectives since the exhibitors and potential buyers had been brought together through the seminar held as part of the event.

The establishment of a permanent GuyExpo Secretariat breaks with the custom of allowing just a matter of weeks for the planning of the event and Prashad told Stabroek Business that among the key tasks of the new entity will be creating an improved regime of logistical arrangements for the staging of GuyExpo and pursuing “a for more aggressive promotion drive” aimed at further popularizing the event overseas to ensure a higher level of international participation. “We have to internationalize GuyExpo more and we therefore need to look at the way in which we market the event overseas. That is an area that we can definitely improve on,” Prashad said.

This year, according to Prashad, GuyExpo 2009 had benefited from participation by a 21-member delegation from St. Lucia as well as from representation from the New York and Toronto facilitated through the efforts of Guyana’s diplomatic missions overseas. “Part of our focus as far as further international participation is concerned will be on working more closely with Guyanese in the Diaspora and with potential markets in the Caribbean,” Prashad added.

The new GuyExpo Secretariat will also assume responsibility for supporting the planning of other major trade fairs and exhibitions across the country. Last Friday, officials of the Secretariat were due to meet with officials of the Linden community to discuss official support for the forthcoming Rockstone Fish Festival.  The Secretariat is also expected to be involved in the planning of the Mahdia Town Day and the Rupununi Expo in the future.

Despite the creation of the new Secretariat Prashad told Stabroek Business that his Ministry was seeking a more central role for the private sector in the staging of national exhibitions and leisure events. “For me, the whole idea is to ensure that the private sector take over these events completely. It would be desirable that the private sector come on board and run with events like The Main Big Lime, for example. We are willing to sit and talk with the private sector about us taking a back seat and have them taking over the running of the event,” Prashad said.

This year, some GuyExpo exhibitors in the craft sector voiced disquiet over what they said was the heavy presence of traders at GuyExpo offering “cheap Chinese imports” and effectively distracting consumer attention from locally produced goods.  However, responding to claims that Guyana had become a target for the dumping of sub-standard imports which could not be sold in developed countries and which were harming home-grown industries Prashad said that while government was seeking to protect local consumers from sub-standard imports and from dumping there could be no question of discouraging fair competition. “I will not support restrictive measures. Providing importers abide by all of the quality control standards and meet all of the various requirements we will not impose restrictions. We must be able to compete on international markets. If we apply protectionist measures those measurers will work against our manufacturers. What we need to do is to ensure that our own manufactured products are of the highest standard so that we can compete with goods produced elsewhere,” he added.

According to Prashad there used to be a time in Guyana when very little was imported and people complained about the lack of imports. “We need to develop an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages us to compete. If we have cheap goods coming in to the country then we must ensure that our own goods are competitive. We cannot discriminate against investors.”

And in response to concerns raised regarding the allocation of booth space which, this newspaper learnt, led to the non-participation in this year’s event by Fibre Tech Industries, Prashad conceded that there had been “an issue over booth space” and that it had been handled by Co-Chairman of the GuyExpo Committee Deryck Cummings.  “The nature of the  products being offered by some of the exhibitors require that they secure large booth spaces. We gave them a maximum of six booth spaces. Some of them wanted twelve. If we had done that we would had to leave out some of the small exhibitors. We had to cater for everyone,”  Prashad said.

Prashad told Stabroek Business that his Ministry was also addressing the fact that the scale and size of GuyExpo has outgrown the capacity of the Sophia Exhibition Site. “It is true that the site is limited in its capacity and what this means is that we will have to invest more in infrastructure in order to make more space available.” Prashad said that the event was also facing “issues of logistics” associated with crowds and with traffic. “Those are also issues that have to be addressed,” he added.

Asked what had pleased him most about this year’s GuyExpo, Prashad told Stabroek Business that he was “particularly satisfied” with the extent of small business participation in the event. Prashad said that while in the past there had been problems with the standard of some of the smaller booths at GuyExpo, that problem did not arise this year. “What pleased me particularly was the fact that this year all of the art and craft exhibitors participated under the umbrella of the Guyana Art and Craft Producers Association which allowed for the setting of standards and a system of vetting. The same process applied with agro processors. That allowed for a higher level of organization.”