Guyana’s first International Building Exposition has been labelled a success by several exhibitors, who say that despite some glitches the event was well-received by the public and provided them with an opportunity to showcase their products.
Calls are already being made for the exposition to be made into an annual affair. The event kicked off on Friday evening at the Guyana National Stadium, Provi-dence and ended on Monday, after being held over for an extra day.
Somat Ali, the owner of Fibre Tech Industrial Plastics, said that the building exposition was a “good experience” despite some organizational glitches. The businessman commended the organizers and said it provided a much-needed opportunity for local and foreign businesses to showcase their goods.
He said the case has been made for it to become an annual event. “I’m always in favour of well organized exhibitions” adding that it is important that the event remained in its current form and not be “carried away like GuyExpo, where it becomes another fair.”
Ali, whose business produces several household items, said he had participated in several home and building expositions and he stressed that there was always a difference to these events. He said that businesses display their products and they take orders from those persons who are interested. “We did not come to make a hustle,” he stressed. According to him, several patrons visited his booth during the four-day event and placed orders. He said that some Barbadians visiting the expo had toured his factory on Monday to place orders for various items.
Sant’s Equipment & Rentals Ltd, a company operating out of Trinidad and Tobago, was one of the overseas firms to be part of the exhibition. The company sells mobile self-loading concrete mixers in addition to earth moving and mining machines. General Manager of the company Ryan Sant said that the equipment his company sells is ideal for Guyana’s interior locations especially where ready mix cement is not easily available.
Sant explained that his business is hoping to establish a small office in Guyana by next year since it believes that there is a market here in Guyana for the machines.
The machines, Sant said, range from US$50,000 for the smaller ones to US$100,000 for the bigger ones. He said that investing in the machine was worth it, since after it is acquired “all you need is gravel, stone, sand and water…that is all you need to make concrete.”
Explaining his company’s involvement in the exposition, Sant said they had heard about the event and decided to participate since they saw it as a means of reaching out to a wider audience. Previously representatives from his company would have met with individuals or small groups of people. While noting that the overseas contingent for the exhibition was not as large as he had expected, Sant said the event was very good. “We’ve had a lot of enquiries from people all over Guyana and this is very important to us and we appreciate this expo because we have been able to meet people from Berbice, Essequibo, Bartica, Georgetown, Linden…,” he said. According to him, he has been part of several such events in his homeland where the turnout was poor. Sant said his company will be here again next year providing there is another event but said too that his company is now seriously considering being part of GuyExpo which is slated for next month.
Orin Shepherd of Mines Services Limited said the event was good since it offered his company an opportunity to advertise its wide cross-section of products. The company’s Technical Sales Representative explained that the company when first formed in the late 90s sold accessories for mining equipment but it has since expanded services to provide concrete-add mixtures and other items useful in the construction process. Some of the persons -particularly the smaller contractors-who visited the booth had never heard of the products the business offers, he said,
“It’s a very good initiative by the Ministry of Housing to host such an exhibition…it is very good where you could have all or most of your building materials in one centralized area, so you can view more than several items in a short space of time.”
Meanwhile GBTI’s Junior Manager-Advances, Tonia Griffith told Stabroek News that the bank used the opportunity to educate the visitors about the services that the bank offered to them, especially in terms of low income loans and mortgages. She said too that information was available about automobile loans and personal consumer loans.
According to her, quite a number of persons visited the booth to learn about the special packages that the bank offered.
The booth showcasing the Madewini Villas proved to be a hit with visitors, some who seemed infatuated with the idea of living in a resort community. “Own a home on [the] Splashmins Resort” was what patrons were told. The Villas, with modern architectural designs, are being built on the Linden Soesdyke Highway, about ¼ mile west of the Splashmin’s resort. The homes range from US$54,200- for a 2-bedroom, 2 bathroom house to US$140,400 for a 3 bedroom, 2 ½ bathroom home. With a monthly maintenance fee of US$150, residents would also be able to benefit from security, clinic staffing, routine yard maintenance, a sewerage system, garbage collection, water, street maintenance, common ground maintenance, lighting and other costs for common grounds, pool, Jacuzzi and parks, the entity’s website says.
The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company had one of the largest booths at the expo plugging their Emagine internet service.
Young people, in particular, flocked the facility to make use of the large screen computers to experience the faster internet even as personnel from the company were on hand explaining the benefits of faster internet.
