–at launch of annual Berbice ‘Expo’

MINISTER of Business, Haimraj Rajkumar is of the opinion that there is tons of money to be made from the merger of the agriculture and tourism sectors, and said as much at the lunch Wednesday of the annual Berbice Expo and Trade Fair, the 15th to date.
He started off by saying that the despite the prospects in oil, Guyana needs to focus more on two important sectors, these being and agriculture and tourism, and that that is what the government will be doing in future.

“We will continue to promote these two sectors; tourism and agriculture. So in October, we will be having an agri-tourism drive, where we will be sensitising persons on how they can use agri-tourism to develop themselves,” Minister Rajkumar said.

“Region Six has the potential, and has been contributing in the agricultural sector. All we have to do now is bridge the two sectors and make one big product: Agritourism,” he added.

He said that the goal of the proposed agritourism ‘expo’ is to develop a ‘green’ tourism sector.

“With this coming on stream,” Minister Rajkumar said, “the private sector will play an integral role in tourism and in agriculture; they will have to come together to plan and plot a way forward, so that all the players will be able to have a product that persons in Guyana and those abroad can benefit from.”

The theme of this year’s Berbice Expo and Trade Fair is ‘Promoting a favourable business and investment climate’.
The four-day event, which is being promoted by the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, will be held at the Albion Sports Complex from September 27 to 30, and was officially launched by Minister Rajkumar.

CCCC President, Mohamed Raffik has reported that the Chambers has spent over $2M of its proceeds from the last ‘Expo’ on development projects in the district.
He said that since the ‘Expo’ started 19 years ago, 14 schools will have benefited from projects undertaken by the Chamber.

“The money that we get from the ‘Expo’ is spent on quite a lot of community projects,” he said, adding: “Recently we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Rose Hall Town Council to develop a playfield, which is situated not far from our Chambers office, so that children in the area could have a recreational time.”

It is anticipated that some 25,000 persons will visit the ‘Expo’ this year.