A more proactive local construction sector can benefit from external market opportunities including existing ones in the Caribbean, President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Clinton Williams told Stabroek Business in a telephone interview earlier this week. Responding to a question regarding likely local private sector participation in next month’s 43rd Caribbean Hardware and Construction Trade Show scheduled for San Juan, Puerto Rico, Williams said while he agreed that opportunities like the March 4-6 event could open doors for local construction firms, he was concerned that the sub-sector may be “too inward-looking” at this time. “I am not seeking to criticize any particular entity directly but I am concerned that we need to do more to promote the sector outside of Guyana,” Williams said.
The GMSA President told Stabroek Business that while he was prepared to examine the potential of the Puerto Rico trade show in terms of its potential to benefit local firms, he could not say at this stage whether there would be local participation in the event. “Sometimes you get concerned over what appears to be an attitude among local firms that signals a satisfaction with what is available on the local market,” Williams said.
The Caribbean Hardware and Construction Trade Show, the largest of its kind in the region, is designed for companies in the region seeking new markets to which to broaden their product distribution as well as extra-regional manufacturers seeking to increase the sale of their products in the region. Typically, non-regional firms attending the trade show are concerned with showcasing their products and establishing links with regional distributors.
The trade show usually attracts manufacturers of building products and materials, electrical products, hand tools and accessories, power tools and accessories, construction materials and plumbing products. Regional construction firms have used the trade show to take advantage of opportunities to meet manufacturers and negotiate access to the best prices for equipment and material imported into the region.
Meanwhile, Williams told Stabroek Business he believed the current country-wide rebuilding effort underway in Haiti in the wake of last year’s catastrophic earthquake offered an opportunity which the local construction sector would do well to seek to take advantage of. He said he was disappointed that local construction firms had not, so far, taken initiatives that would position them to take advantage of that market. Specifically, he referred to what he said was an indifferent response by the local construction sector to a recent opportunity that had arisen to visit Haiti and review the situation there. According to Williams, some firms opted out of the fact-finding visit after they learnt that they would have had to pay their own airfares to Haiti. “I was particularly disappointed,” Williams told Stabroek Business.
He said he believed local construction and engineering skills could play a role, along with other firms in the region, in the physical rebuilding of Haiti but their prospects for taking advantage of that market would be much better if they sought partnerships with Haitian firms. “Haiti is different. It’s a matter of customs and culture and language, among other things,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, Williams disclosed that the door to construction project possibilities may still not be closed to local contractors since he will be attending a meeting of the Caribbean Associa-tion of Industry and Com-merce next month, which will bring together firms from across the region and will be probing possibilities of construction and engineering entities from other Caribbean territories working with Haitian firms on projects in that country. Asked about the prospects of Guyanese firms benefiting from such joint venture projects with Haitian firms, Williams said he believed this was entirely possible. But he added that it would only happen if local firms sought to position themselves to take advantage of those opportunities. “Secur-ing opportunities will require initiatives on the part of the local construction sector,” Williams said.
