–           Gears up for official launch next week

AIMING to help local businesses gain access to global opportunities, the World Trade Centre Georgetown (WTCG) is gearing up for its official launch next week, offering Guyanese enterprises a direct link to over 300 World Trade Centres worldwide.

During a media engagement on Friday, Executive Chairman Komal Samaroo said the initiative forms part of wider efforts to build an economy that is not only sustainable, but competitive on the international stage.

“The underlying factor to be successful in the international marketplace is to be internationally competitive in your business,” Samaroo said. “It is to understand the marketplace; it is to understand all the regulations that go within international markets. It is to understand the standards that are required.”

Samaroo explained that the Georgetown centre is part of a global network dedicated to facilitating trade, knowledge exchange, and business connectivity.

“We belong to a single international organisation with a common objective,” he noted. “We can access partners in that network to bring knowledge and information to Guyanese businesses that are desirous of exporting, just as we are in a position to help them and their entities in their respective cities learn about the Guyana market.”

With this, he emphasised that the centre is aimed to help educate Guyanese entrepreneurs at all levels, micro, small, medium and large and is also aimed at helping to find connections and contacts through various networking and training sessions that will be organised here.

“In the international market, the key element, or the foundation, is how you find distribution partners, partners that give you what is called route to market, so that the consumers can find your product to buy in those markets,” Samaroo explained.

The executive chairman pointed out that building an international market presence requires a complete culture change from doing business domestically.

He reflected that historically, Guyana has remained primarily a producing country; the focus must now be on producing things higher on the value chain and products that consumers buy in the world.

Further, he said, “That’s how I see this organisation… A lot of training, knowledge, networking, and information to help empower Guyanese businesses to export, to diversify from the domestic market, particularly as we need to diversify our economy and don’t depend on oil and gas or the commodities that we have historically depended on.”

The official launch of the World Trade Centre Georgetown is set for Tuesday, October 21, at its Kingston headquarters, which was commissioned in June this year. President, Dr Irfaan Ali is expected to deliver the keynote address at the opening ceremony.

The launch week will feature several business and networking events designed to connect local companies with international partners and reinforce Guyana’s growing position within the global trading system.

“The World Trade Centre Georgetown will provide services, training, and international connections to help Guyanese businesses expand globally,” Samaroo affirmed.