THOUSANDS gathered at the National Exhibition Site, Sophia last evening, as Guyana’s Premier Trade Fair and Exposition, GuyExpo 2012, was officially opened, under the theme “Strengthening the traditional, Embracing the new”.

Delivering the feature address on behalf of President Donald Ramotar, Prime Minister Sam Hinds said that GuyExpo is an occasion for celebrating the nation’s achievements, and it is also an occasion to “challenge and encourage each of us to do even better, to learn from each other, to emulate each other and to compete in a friendly way, productive way, with each other.”
“ We Guyanese, over the last decades, have been able to provide better for ourselves each year through our work, the work of our brains and our hands, providing a greater amount of goods and services, whether from our own direct production, or in partnership with others, or in exchange with others from other countries,” he said.
He stated that a valid overall indication of our success over the last 20 years is the growth of our national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and per capita GDP. National GDP, he said, grew from US$321M in 1992 to US$2,151M in 2011. In addition, per capita GDP increased from US$454 per person in 1992 to US$2,869 per person in 2011.
He further noted that while the growth of GDP is good, there is still a far way to go as many of our Caribbean neighbours are way ahead of us.
The Prime Minister said he believes that GuyExpo celebrates the production and creation of goods and services of a wide variety, excellent quality and good prices. Nevertheless, he said that Guyanese should not try to escape the fact that when Guyana approached independence, and in the first decades after independence, the focus of the overwhelming majority was on distribution and the lack of fair, equitable distribution of goods and services.
However, he explained that by the end of the 1980’s, “we had begun to realize that there was need also to focus on the production of goods and services and the creation of wealth.
Hinds stated that the PPP/C has striven to focus on both production of goods and services and the creation of wealth as well as some fair equitable distribution of goods and services.
“We have striven to achieve these two ends not in some stagnant balance, but recognising that both ends can be met simultaneously, reinforcing each other by increasing the capacity of each of us to work and produce, hence, our large expenditures of our budget on education and health,” he said.
He pointed out that the overarching principles of the administration’s economic strategy have been and continue to be prudent management of the economy and with that goes balanced budgets and macroeconomic stability; and in addition, sustained investment in public services and infrastructure to facilitate economic activity and support for a modern vigorous competitive private sector.
Hinds noted that the private sector is the leading sector in the modernisation of the economy and in that regard; he said that the sector welcomes foreign investment and also foreign workers.
“We recognize that we don’t have all the skills, neither in numbers nor variety; but we do recognize that we would need some national discussion on the concerns which we may have,” he said.