GUYANA’S premier trade fair and exhibition, GuyExpo, is set to make a big comeback in 2022, during the first week of December.

The event, which was first held in 1995, had grown under the patronage of several tourism ministers including Michael Shree Chand, Geoffrey DaSilva, Manzoor Nadir and Manniram Prashad.

What began as an activity that attracted close to 200 exhibitors, grew into Guyana’s biggest exposition with over 460 businesses, both local and international, participating annually. They were all given the opportunity to present their locally produced goods and services.

GuyExpo became an annual event in 2004 under the Chairmanship of Keith Burrowes, and is now the longest sustained exhibition in the Caribbean. In that year, the organisers took cognisance of the growth and interdependence of international trade and opened the exhibition to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and other regional exhibitors.

The expo provided the platform for both local and foreign businesses – importers, exporters, retailers, and wholesalers to come together at one marketplace and display their handicraft, furniture, garments, jewellery, and horticulture, pharmaceuticals, tourism, information technology and most importantly, their culture.

However, in 2015, the then A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government downsized the event, creating the Small Business Expo.

That three-day event which was birthed out of intense discussions among several stakeholders in both the private and public sectors was an alternative for small businesses.
Now that the government had changed, GuyExpo is set to return to the Guyanese calendar bigger and better.