MINISTER of Business Dominic Gaskin is adamant that there is value in having a ‘green’ brand attached to Guyana.

He was at the time speaking at the closing ceremony of the Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre (CCIC) ‘green’ technology weekend boot camp held at the Tower Suites Hotel in collaboration with the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED).
The programme launched on Friday 18 and concluded Sunday 20, saw a number of mostly young Guyanese with small start-ups pitching their ‘green’ business ideas to win either the US$1000 first place, the US$500 second place or the US$250 third place.

The winning team got the opportunity to access an accelerated amount of US $30,000 to grow their enterprise, along with expert advice and guidance from international know-hows.
Gaskin praised the initiative of the Caribbean consortium which is backed by the Government of Canada, through the World Bank for hosting the programme in Guyana.
Gaskin said the mere perception of Guyana becoming a ‘green’ economy carries with it value, let alone its attainment.

He pointed out that perception is an important factor in the growth of the economy, because where investors perceive value, that is where they will direct their interest.
“The fact that we are all talking about ‘green’ these days shows that there is a perception out there that green has value,” he said, adding that the ‘green’ state is slowly taking shape, because many business pitches to government are now including aspects of ‘greening.’

Gaskin pointed out that businesspersons, who understand how to leverage perception to create value, are people who understand how to make “big bucks.”
In presenting business ideas, the boot camp participants had to convince the judges of a viable, profitable business enterprise.
Plant Max Farms emerged winners. Their idea involved the cloning of particularly banana and plantain crops through tissue culture to fight off the Black Sigatoka Disease, which causes physical damage to plants and cuts yields to as much as 70 per cent.

Plant Max’s presenter Ion Cole, said the cloning will involve good, clean tissues from one plant incorporated in young ones that will grow and increase yields, create uniformity and balance harvesting, which can only be done periodically.
This idea, he believes, could help in transforming the sugar industry.
Second-place winners WooDNex Products presented eco-friendly construction materials that included paper, wood shavings and other such materials incorporated in blocks, installations and other construction materials.

Engineer Olson Abrams noted that this recycling process would involve the collection of the waste material, shavings, cardboards and others, treating it against possible contaminants such as mold and hazards such as fire and incorporating the production of value-added products.
Taking third place, O’ Marley Dre explained that eco-fertilisers would produce value-added products from food-waste; compost that would add moisture to the soil, nutrients and help reduce erosion while growing healthier food.

Their hope is to gain government support to help reduce artificial and other harmful fertilisers on the local and foreign markets.
Some other business ideas included the production of eco-lodges through Bamboo Paradise’s ‘green’ accommodations and even an energy-producing, wave- propelled generator called the floating tidal wave generator, a pitch that targeted Guyana’s annoying, frequent power shortages.

This green boot camp has already been taken to many Caribbean nations to increase green awareness and production in the Region. At the opening, it was highlighted that a growing US$600billion ‘green’ global market awaits Guyana. The country was urged to grab their share.