NEW Amsterdam Town Week activities, which took place under the theme ‘Collaboration and Unity for the Restoration of New Amsterdam’, ended last Sunday with the final event being a fun day for the family.

Persons checking out the various booths at the exhibition

Persons turned out in hundreds on that occasion and there were various display booths.
Representative of the Berbice Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Imran Sacoor, in an interview said that over the next year, the organisation will persistently work towards creating opportunities for establishing small businesses in the town.
He said New Amsterdam is one of the most efficiently balanced towns in Berbice, driven by both private and public sector entities and has a lot of openings for small businesses.
Sacoor said persons need to understand how positively this can contribute to the township.
He noted that, very often, persons say that New Amsterdam is limited in terms of resources and that it does not have potential. However, one has to generate them.
He added that events such as the Town Week give residents the chance to showcase and realise their potential and collaboration is needed to continue on this path.
Sacoor said that the commercial banks have been making finances available to small businesses and the Government of Guyana has created the infrastructure, in terms of the process involved.

Legal steps
He said that, in some countries, persons would have to go through numerous legal steps to establish a business, while in Guyana the process is very straightforward. People can just start an enterprise and register it through the courts.
Noting that business people in New Amsterdam need to showcase their offerings to the wider community in order to invigorate interest that comes to the commercial town, Sacoor pointed out that people from as far as Linden and Georgetown were vending throughout Town Week and it is unfortunate that people from New Amsterdam did not take advantage of the occasion.
Sacoor said, over the years, there has been a lot of vending and food stalls at Town Week and, this year, the Chamber came on board to demonstrate what really is the meaning of Town Week.
He said in recent years, the celebrations have become more of a ‘street lime’ instead of a business-focused activity. However, this year, an exhibition area was established for businesses, including Digicel, to showcase their products including food and clothing stalls and a vet shop.
Sacoor said, overall, this year’s event was better than the last two years and he highly praised the Ministry of Tourism for its continuous support of the activities, especially in the resuscitation of the Number 63 Beach, which is one of the major tourist attractions in Berbice.
Meanwhile, Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) Chairman, Mr. David Armogan, who joined the festivities, pointed out that he was rather disappointed with the support of the residents of New Amsterdam as they did not come out in their usual numbers.
He suggested that, in future, things may have to be done differently to attract the usual number of people, since there are a lot of other activities during this time.
The week’s programme came to a close after the final ‘wash down’ was held on Saturday and Sunday nights at the New Amsterdam Stelling Road.
The other occurrences during the week included a domino competition, a Senior Citizens’ Day, an impromptu speech contest, a gospel and movie night and an exhibition and street fair.