Over time, GuyExpo has established itself as a hugely popular event with the private sector. It attracts widespread participation by business houses across the country and foreign enterprises from the region and beyond. In fact, it is particularly significant that exhibitors from as far away as India and Indonesia regularly find their way to GuyExpo, a sure indication that the event is worth what in many cases is the considerable cost of participation.
GuyExpo is also a popular “outing” for the thousands of Guyanese who visit the exhibition centre to afford themselves a panoramic view of the goods and services offered by the local private sector and by foreign exhibitors and to entertain themselves at the food and beverage outlets that benefit from the brisk trade afforded by the crowds that show up at the event.
Another noteworthy and commendable feature of GuyExpo is that it provides a relatively inexpensive marketplace for small businesses in both the traditional and non-traditional sectors, seeking to consolidate existing markets and to develop new ones. Whatever the short term cost of participation, small entrepreneurs presumably look beyond the immediate investment and focus more directly on the opportunities afforded by the single large and potentially lucrative marketplace that GuyExpo provides.
Beyond the outward manifestations of widespread local private sector participation, foreign visitors and popular public appeal, however, there are other important yardsticks by which the success or otherwise of GuyExpoO must be measured. One of the purposes of the event – as we understand it – is to bring together visiting potential buyers and local producers, in the expectation that the outcomes of those encounters will lead to the expansion of existing external markets and the creation of new ones. Another presumed objective of GuyExpo is the creation of an enabling environment for possible investments – joint ventures and others – between local companies and foreign delegations that come here for the event.
Thirdly, both local and foreign exhibitors expect to secure some amount of immediate product sales as well as to create longer term demand for their products and services. And while it has been mentioned before it is worth repeating that GuyExpo is particularly important to small businesses since it provides a marketing opportunity which they would not otherwise be able to afford.
These may not be the only objectives of GuyExpo but it is reasonable to assume that they are among the more important ones and their outcomes would evidently serve as more than acceptable yardsticks for determining the success or otherwise of the event.
We know, for example, that visitors to this year’s GuyExpo included a large delegation of private and public sector officials from Barbados led by that country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Mia Mottley and that Mr. Geoffrey Da Silva, the Chief Executive Officer of Go-Invest announced at a forum held at the Grand Coastal Hotel that the Barbadians were engaged in meetings with local private sector officials.
This year’s GuyExpo assumed a further significance when viewed against the backdrop, first, of the need for the local producers of goods and services to enhance their competitiveness in order to better position themselves to take advantage of the Caricom single market and secondly, when account is taken of the renewed interest in Guyana’s agricultural sector that coincides with rising global food prices. The latter consideration certainly featured prominently in the presentation made by Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud to the visiting Barbados delegation.
What we have not been told up to this time is which local companies met with the Barbadians, the areas of possible cooperation that were discussed and what, if any, were the outcomes of those meetings.
The organizers can of course argue- and with some justification – that it may be premature to make concrete pronouncements on these engagements since some or all of them may have been preliminary ones and that it is best to await some clear outcomes of those engagements before making the details public. There is, however, no good reason for not revealing who met whom and what were the broad areas that were discussed so that these engagements can be followed up by the media and the public over time until they fructify or “fall through” as the case may be.
It is this kind of information that allows for a more realistic appraisal of the real outcomes of GuyExpo and the organizers would do well to bear this in mind.
Interestingly enough, there has, as yet, been no public pronouncement from the Private Sector Commission or the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce that provides a private sector perspective on the outcomes of GuyExpo. It would be more than useful for these bodies, individually or together, to undertake an assessment of the event and to make an appropriate public announcement based on that assessment. GuyExpo after all, despite the fact that it is a state-organized event, is really a private sector affair and the private sector as much as the government ought to be in a position to determine its success or otherwise.
Up until now Minister Manniram Prashad’s declaration that GuyExpo was a success remains unsupported by the kind of information that would validate his assertion. We were told, for example, that “over 90,000 people visited GuyExpo and that “from all indicators and from all the comments” the event was indeed a success. The problem is that the success or otherwise of GuyExpo has to be judged by criteria that go beyond visitor attendance. The real indicators of success must also go beyond the “quality of the exhibits” and the number of booths set up at the exhibition. In other words, we are still to be provided with any really meaningful “indicators” that GuyExpo was a success.
While it is probably true that an eminent case can be made for the Minister’s assertion, our contention is that such a case is yet to be made and that it would do the image of the event and the reputations of the organizers a power of good if a fairly detailed report on the event – which should include the views of the private sector – that addresses the business and investment-related outcomes of the event, were to be prepared and made public. Those outcomes, surely, would make a far more effective case for the success of GuyExpo than the outward manifestations of the event which, up until now, are the only criteria being posited for the claimed success of the event.
