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 fully prepared to market their wide variety of distinctly 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 Organization (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 Partnerships with Canadians 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/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 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 said that the programme aims to help participating companies/organisations establish contacts with international markets which will help them 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 (SME’s) the environment for human resource development, product line expansion and their 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 edition of the Interior Design and possibly the January 2014 trade shows 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 12 months to support their start-up secretariat, 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.