PRESIDENT of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), Mr. Clinton Williams said Thursday that the GMSA, in collaboration with the  Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, will match Guyanese business people in the productive and services sectors with regional and international investors who are expected to participate in GUYEXPO 2013. This will be done at investment fora during the first two days of the  exposition which is  scheduled to run later this year from Thursday 3rd to Monday 7th October.
Williams made the disclosure during a “crucial” meeting with representatives of the productive and services sectors held at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) pavilion yesterday morning.
The participants included business people in the agro-processing sector, tourism, manufacturing and fashion designing sectors and recently appointed economics officer in the United States Embassy, Mr. Jeff Barrus.
Williams said that GMSA intends to use GUYEXPO to get   regional and international business people to not only buy goods and services but to  help locals   improve the quality,  profitability and competitiveness of their activities in the manufacturing and services sector.
The investors targeted are business people from CARICOM countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica and Suriname and South American countries including Brazil and others as far away as India and China.
VERY GOOD OPPORTUNITY
Williams said that some sectors that hitherto were performing at better levels than they currently are, needed some sort of injection to help  them to do better and the GMSA saw GUYEXPO 2013 and an exposure to regional and international businessmen as a very good opportunity to help them  achieve this objective.

Williams said: “We thought that at GUYEXPO, GMSA will take on the role of ensuring that we would change the focus of the exhibition to one that has a buy-in. In other words, that we would expose you the manufacturers and service providers of Guyana to the regional and international business community. You will then get to tell them what your needs are to do better than you are doing whether in terms of packaging, marketing,  whatever it is you need in order to lift the quality of your business and what inputs that they can provide.”

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTORS
He reiterated  that the GMSA ultimately aims to expose locals to Foreign Direct Investors (FDIs)  looking for  buy-in in terms of international interest in the productive and service  sectors.
Local business people targeted are those  in the productive and service sectors including  the wood and timber processing sector,  the  agro-processing sector, the arts and craft sector and the services sector, including sports, eco-tourism, fashion designing, environmental management, information technology and health and wellness.
The  “matching” project is being co-ordinated by Vice President of the GMSA  Ramsey Ali who yesterday urged locals   to submit information on their businesses and what assistance they could use to become more competitive.
GMSA has given these businesses a deadline of one month from yesterday to do so.
Ali stressed: “We have to get information on the companies that want to participate and   what help they need or else it would not make sense inviting people from the Caribbean  and India and China here.”
He said that  the GMSA intends to send the information obtained  to regional and  international investors  before  GUYEXPO commences so that they will be coming to the event forearmed with information on who they will interact  with, what their products are and what assistance these Guyanese would need in order to improve the quality and competitiveness of their businesses.
He said: “For  the larger companies we are definitely looking at inviting a delegation from India and China to help us with logistics, including  telling  our local business people   how to best do business with India and China and so help eliminate some of the problems which currently adversely impact on trading, especially in imports.”
Both officials of the GMSA appealed to local business people in the productive and services sector, both large and small businesses, to be prompt in supplying the required information in order for the exercise to be successful.
The information which is required on a Company Assessment form being circulated by the GMSA can be acquired from Nerissa Thornhill at gmsaguyanaltd@gmail.com or GMSA office at 157 Waterloo Street Georgetown Tel # 223 7405 and submitted to the same person or e-mail address on completion.
GUYEXPO  is scheduled to run from Thursday 3rd to Monday 7th October 2013 under the theme: “Advancing Productivity through Innovation, Modernization and Expansion”.