MEMBERS of the Guyana Arts and Craft Producers Association (GACPA) are beginning to benefit from a two-year trade capacity building project, which will see them being fully prepared to market their wide variety of distinctively Guyanese-made products on the international market. The project has been put together by the Trade Facilitation Office
(TFO) of Canada, in collaboration with the Guyana branch of the
Canadian Executive Services Organisation (CESO) and the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA), GMSA’s Communications
Consultant Marjorie Chester has reported.

The project falls within the framework of the TFO/CESO Trade Capacity Building Project 2012 – 2014, and is being funded by the partnership with the Canadian branch of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The Letter of Agreement was recently signed by the TFO, GMSA, CESO and GACPA.

The main objective is to facilitate sharing of Canadian trade expertise for the benefit of smaller enterprises, with a specific focus on women-led and/ or managed businesses.

Gender related constraints to setting up new manufacturing enterprises and accessing trade support services will be confronted over the course of the project, and strategies will be developed to eradicate them where they exist.

This project was created by TFO following the creditable showing of local products at two trade fairs in Toronto, Canada – the Interior Design Show in January and the Agro-Products Expo in May 2011.

TFO team leader Brian Mitchell has said the programme aims to help participating companies and organizations to establish contact with international markets, which will help to generate new export sales and ultimately increase employment opportunities as they expand.

It is also intended to improve the capacity of local trade support institutions like the GMSA to create for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) the environment for human resource development, product line expansion, and general capacity and preparedness for external trade and export competitiveness.

The project anticipates that, before it concludes in May 2014, at least two-thirds of the selected producers would have established contacts in the Canadian market, with a high likelihood of generating more sales and improving the capacity of their production operations at home.

New employment is expected to increase as a consequence.

In the latter part of the project, the supported GACPA producers will have the opportunity to exhibit and market their new branded
collection at the August 2013 staging of the Interior Design and possibly the January 2014 trade show in Toronto.

Assistance will be provided in Canada to recruit buyers for the event, and support commercial negotiations afterwards.

In addition, GACPA will receive from TFO up to US$6,000 per month for twelve (12) months, to support their start-up secretariat, which is another objective of the two-year programme.

The TFO expects that the Guyana operation would also serve as a pilot for the Caribbean and Latin American region