THE curtains came down last night on the Third International Building Expo, which has been deemed as a tremendous success.
Thousands of Guyanese and overseas visitors as well flocked the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, East Bank Demerara over the weekend for the expo which was staged under the theme “Embracing Standards – Building the Future”.
It closed with a bang as many crowded the expo site on the final night, to get a chance to see what products and services some 100 local, regional and international entities had to offer including in the construction, home furnishing, and financing industries, and to also interact with them, and learn about some exciting new developments in the country’s building and construction sector.
The Ministry of Housing and Water through its Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) also took advantage of the platform to host a ‘One Stop Shop’ exercise yesterday which saw the allocation of more than 670 house lots, in the Eccles to Herstelling area, on the East Bank Demerara.
Also, on Saturday, allocation of house lots for the Remigrant Housing Scheme was done at the expo during another ‘One Stop Shop’ exercise.
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle last night, Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali said, “Building Expo 2012 has been an amazing success. It is the largest foot traffic we have had; we had more than 42,000 persons passing through”.

Two of the model homes that were on display by Buddy’s Housing Development at Building Expo 2012

“The exhibitors themselves are so excited, a lot of them have developed strong business linkages, strong business partnerships, elaborate business partnerships; the consumers those who came in were very happy with the building expo and the level of education that they have now as it relates to building construction, building materials, designs, architectural designs, standards and so on,” he stated.
“The Building Expo has been a tremendous success and we now hope that this would serve as an impetus to continue the growth and the boom and expansion in the construction sector,” Ali said.
“We had initially planned that Building Expo will be a bi-annual activity. It is because of the private sector that pushed us and said they need the building expo every year and the consumers themselves who would have asked for it, and from the response here, you will see that this is something that the people wanted,” he noted.
As a result, he said, they will have to reexamine that bi-annual plan, reiterating, “It is driven by the sector, it is driven by demand, it is driven by the market forces and building and construction is on the expansion, it is on the boom so expositions like these are strategic in fulfilling requirements of that boom”.
Some of the exhibitors also expressed satisfaction with the expo having received positive responses. One such participant is Moses Rambarran, Director of Promise Land Development Ltd., whose company is offering people American-style luxury homes at an affordable price with unprecedented quality. The pre-fabricated steel homes are manufactured in an American factory.
“The people of Guyana have been thrilled; they have been excited to see this product. We have literally had to put up a barrier rope and we have created tours for the people. We are taking about 15-20 people in at a time,” he stated.
“The Guyanese people love this product, they are seeing a real opportunity to buy a product where they get value for their money,” he noted.
Marketing Officer of MACORP, Pernell Cummings said the response to their products has been great for them and “it has been a good investment” for them.
“This is our third year participating and to me, this has been the best year in regards to response,” he pointed out.
Owner of Guy-America Furniture Store, Mohamed Alli said they have had a very good response and many persons were amazed to know that their products are made using local materials. They have three stores including in Mandela Avenue in Georgetown, Zeeburg and Parika.