GUYEXPO 2012 opens on Thursday at its traditional venue – the Sophia Exhibition Site — but with heightened vigour and a renewed emphasis on international marketing and ‘driving business for Guyana’.

This year’s GuyExpo is intended to resonate the message powerfully across the Caribbean Region and further afield that Guyana is indeed the breadbasket of the Caribbean, and has both the potential and preparation to market its diverse products and services for which it is well known.
Moreover, there is every resolve to do so professionally, with Guyana offering the highest standards in a sustained way.
This was the crux of the summing up of GuyExpo’s Event Management Consultant, Ms. Sandra Ann Baptiste, who has been marketing GuyExpo overseas. She sees it as being all about showcasing the best of Guyanese products and services.
Far from being a huge national expose that showcases Guyana’s products and services, and offering them for sale mainly at an inter-regional level (between and among the ten administrative regions of Guyana), there will be the opportunity this year for Guyana to zero in on the vast trade and marketing possibilities just waiting to be clinched.
Excited about the prospects coming out of GuyExpo 2012 for enhanced business relations between Guyana and international partners, Ms. Baptiste asserts, “I think people are going to be in for a big surprise… This year, the show has taken a new direction, and I can say that GuyExpo 2012 is an upgraded and expanded (exposition) that is putting a lot of emphasis on driving business for Guyana.”

As Event Management Consultant for GuyExpo, Ms Baptiste has responsibility for its international marketing. She intends to focus her energies specifically on North America and selected Caribbean countries.
She has produced a wide range of promotional material for overseas buyers, business organisations and potential investors, and has also trained frontline staff working at GuyExpo in customer service.
She arrived in Guyana last week, having covered much ground while spending one month in New York, and being able to influence about thirty-entrepreneurs and representatives of business organisations to visit Guyana for the occasion.
“Some of these entrepreneurs from Barbados have committed to making significant long term purchases of fruits and seafood,” she commented.
Among buyers and business organizations that have shown interest in, and would be here to attend GuyExpo are the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce of Florida; the Canada-Caribbean Business Council; and entrepreneurs from New York, Barbados and St. Lucia.
In addition, another two dozen companies and entrepreneurs will be in Guyana to exhibit items they produce. These include those coming from Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United Kingdom.
Besides agricultural produce and agri-business, Baptiste said, there is interest in the furniture sector and in purchasing Guyana’s woods. She said there will be efforts to promote and sell non-traditional species of Guyana’s woods in addition to the popular greenheart and kabukalli.
Baptiste notes that tremendous interest in GuyExpo has been generated among the Diaspora, and several regional organisations have committed to coming next year. These include the Barbados Hotel Association and the St. Lucia Manufacturers Association.
Baptiste is particularly happy about the emphasis being placed on international marketing of GuyExpo for the first time this year, and has commended Trade, Industry and Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali for bringing in business people and organizations from the Caribbean and further afield to see and experience what Guyana has to offer.
She is of the view that aggressive marketing of GuyExpo is what is needed, since many countries are not fully aware of what Guyana has to offer. She also had kudos for the commendable Building Expo staged last year, referring to it as an ‘eye-opener’ for a lot of the Caribbean participants, who did not know of Guyana’s massive housing drive.
Baptise has been involved with GuyExpo since its inception in 1995, as Head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest). She has played a major role in planning Guy-Expo; and for the first time this year, has mooted the concept of a GuyExpo Business Forum – a forum for the local private sector to network with visiting Expo delegates. This forum will be held on Friday, September, 28, from 13:30hrs to 15:30hrs at the International Conference Centre (Eastern Conference Room) at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.
There will be presentations by Minister Ali, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, under the theme “Strengthening Business Ties with Guyana.” The forum will also be addressed by four Caribbean and North American business personalities.
Essentially, Baptiste concluded, the core objectives of GuyExpo are the following:

*Educating the Guyanese public about what local products and services Guyana has to offer

*Showcasing the best of Guyanese products and services – the high quality and standards

*Increasing Guyanese exports, and the only way we can do so is by making sure we go out there and market Guyana and get buyers to come in.
The bottom line is all about increasing jobs.

*Making GuyExpo serve as a catalyst for increasing local purchases and exports of Guyanese goods and services; increasing Caribbean and international sales; and, of course, attracting investment.