-Jagdeo
Guyana’s inaugural Inter-national Building Expo kicked off yesterday at the National Stadium at Providence, and President Bharrat Jagdeo said it could move many Guyanese closer to realizing the dream of owning their own homes.

Delivering the feature address at the Expo’s opening ceremony, Jagdeo said significant progress has been made in the housing sector, where about 90,000 Guyanese of about 200,000 households have access to a plot of land. He said that about 60% of those have started some form of construction on the land. “…More people own their homes and they have a growing sense of dignity which ownership of something brings, particularly a home,” he said. The three-day event features over 100 exhibits and includes representatives from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, China and the USA.

Regarding production, Jagdeo said that many local producers do not produce at the required scale to be competitive at the global level. For this to change, he said there needed to be reorganization in production practices.  He also said there needed to be more partnerships among businesses, particularly those that are family owned, so that a joint effort could be made to target available markets.

The building exhibition, Housing Minister Irfaan Ali said, is intended to complement GuyExpo.

Ali said it is important that local businesses work hard to penetrate the available markets. Marketing and not quality of products is what is beating local businesses, he noted. The exhibition is also aimed at providing links for local businesses and he said that already connections have been made.  He also stressed that the event was aimed at educating the population and hence several seminars were being hosted as part of the exhibition.

Chairman of the Private Sector Commission Ramesh Dookhoo, meanwhile, said the construction sector is booming, providing several opportunities for the local private sector.