IN light of the overwhelming response to the International Building Expo 2022 from patrons and exhibitors, Housing and Water Minister, Collin Croal, on Sunday, announced a two-day extension of the event.

The expo is being held at the National Stadium tarmac at Providence, East Bank Demerara under the theme: “A New Frontier for Building a One Guyana.”

It was slated to wrap up on Sunday; however, with great reviews and requests being made by exhibitors, the expo has been extended to Tuesday.

“Based on the request by the exhibitors themselves and based on an evaluation of the thousands of persons we’ve seen visiting the Guyana National Stadium over Friday and Saturday… we are therefore pleased to announce that we will be extending the International Building Expo 2022 by two days,” Minister Croal said.

“The response from our exhibitors is that they are happy [with] the amount of visitors as well as persons who are interested [in their products] and are able to acquire as much information as possible of what this expo is about,” he added.

On Monday and Tuesday, the gates will be open from 12:00 hrs to 22:00hrs with admission free of cost.

“The gates will be wide open for one and all to visit here at the Guyana National Stadium. So, I want to encourage all persons, especially those who have not had the opportunity to visit the expo as yet, to come and take your time – there is a lot of information to be acquired. There are over 350 booths here… to be able to experience and interact as much as possible because this is an expo like no one before,” the Housing Minister stated.

In his address to thousands of people at the launch of the expo last Friday, he announced that the government will be investing a total of $50B to construct 4,500 housing units and expand major highways.

He noted that $20B would be spent on the expansion of major highways, including the Aubrey Barker Road, Eccles Landfill Road and Schoonord to Crane roadways, among others, while a further $30B will be expended on the construction of 1,500 housing units at LBI; 1,000 at Leonora; 1,000 at Wales and 1,000 at the new Silica City.

Minister Croal said that while those projects were government-led, there were many private sector-led projects in various stages, making the offerings of Building Expo 2022 critical.

Further, he said that over the next three years, more than $100B would be invested in regional infrastructure and building works across the 10 administrative regions.

The expo has returned after five years and is dubbed the blueprint of the future infrastructure. It has attracted some 350 participants, of which at least 25 are foreign companies, including some from the Caribbean.