-President Bharrat Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo said that the products displayed by the local entrepreneurs at GuyExpo are of world-class standards. President Jagdeo made this remark to the National Communication Network (NCN) while attending GuyExpo on Saturday night, when he spent several hours visiting booths and interacting with exhibitors and visitors.
“It makes me very proud to see not just the growth of the businesses in our country, but improvement in quality and better standard of living for our people,” Jagdeo said, referring to the impressive crowd attendance and the increasing participation of businesses at the expo over the years.
“I have seen in the early years how substandard the products were; and over the years, how our entrepreneurs and people have transformed our products,” he said, adding, “what we see on display now is of world-class standards and can compete with products anywhere in the world.”
President Jagdeo said that wealth and growth in the country are increasing and it is evident in the small things that may go unobserved.
He said that he was at an event in Suriname recently, and met several Guyanese who had migrated there several years ago. At the end of the event, the Guyanese expressed the desire to take photographs with the President, but only two had cellphones that could facilitate this, Jagdeo said.
Compare this to Guyana “where almost every child has a cellphone with a camera, this tells the story of our growth,” he said.
“This says something too as to the growth of our income level, without our realizing it,” Jagdeo said.
Guyana has the fastest growing economy in the Caribbean, he said.
“Our country is the only country in the region that has seen six years of consecutive growth.
“We have defied the logic of the international crises. As a result of a lot of ‘heavy lifting’ by the government, the country is now producing products that can compete in any part of the world,” he said.
He said, however, the producers need to produce more, as the future of the country lies in not just selling to the domestic market.
“Our internal market is too small. We have to export, and the only way we can export is to compete with a keen playing field with the international production,” he said.
Guyana’s premier trade fair and exposition, GuyExpo, was hosted under the theme “Enhancing Growth through Competitiveness,” and closed last night.
This year saw the 12th hosting of the event with the attendance of thousands of patrons and participation by several producers and corporate entities of Guyana displaying their products.
Several overseas exhibitors, investors and buyers were  also involved in the event.