There have been times when a fair measure of controversy has attached itself to local representation at international trade shows coordinated by the state-run Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest). That, however, does not appear to deter the entity from persisting with what it says is the task of expanding opportunities for local producers to access regional and extra-regional markets.
Earlier this week, in an extended and wide-ranging interview, Go-Invest’s Senior Investment Officer Roxanne Sumner and Investment Officer Kibbyann Chester-Harding spoke of the role the entity is set to play in yet another external marketing promotion exercise, local representation at the 2015 Barbados Manufacturers Expo (BMEX).
Between May 22 and 25 Go-Invest will play chaperone to 25 local producers in the handicraft, leather craft, furniture and fashion design sectors.
Both Sumner and Chester-Harding concede that given what they say has been a fair measure of unwarranted criticism of some of the services delivered by Go-Invest previously, the planning associated with this month’s Barbados event is of critical importance.
The two Go-Invest officials have already made a preparatory visit to Barbados where they met representatives of the Barbados Investment Development Corporation (BIDC). That engagement resulted in discussions on a range of issues relating to Guyana’s participation in BMEX, including matchmaking initiatives that will seek to ‘twin’ local producers to Barbadian markets, shipping and customs and immigration. Some of those, they concede, can be among the more challenging assignments to execute and sometimes they can be the subject of a measure of disgruntlement.
Overseeing the shipping arrangements to Barbados for BMEX participants’ consignments is one of Go-Invest’s responsibilities and by last Tuesday, Chester-Harding and Sumner were already contemplating the imminent arrival of the vessel in Barbados and the support they are anticipating from the Guyana Consulate in Barbados and the Barbados Manufacturing Association (BMA) in receiving the cargo.
Here in Guyana, ‘fine-tuning’ the arrangements for the BMEX visit, involves briefing sessions with participants. This is where the ground rules are made clear. Guyanese participants in BMEX must pay their own air fares and meet their accommodation costs, though part of Go-Invest’s role is to secure, as best it can, good rates for travel and accommodation.
Ahead of their arrival in Barbados, profiles of exhibitors have already been dispatched to potential importers as part of the match-making exercise.
The Go-Invest officials say that one of the challenges of chaperoning Guyanese teams attending trade fairs and other similar events outside of Guyana reposes in ensuring that they understand the rules. Go-Invest is concerned with affording local producers the opportunity to use those events to create external market opportunities. “What we expect is that participants will take with them quantities of their product that are appropriate for display and product promotion. There have been times when this may not have been understood. Sometimes there is an expectation that overseas events will provide opportunities for significant sales. When this turns out not to be the case there is sometimes a certain level of disappointment,” Sumner says. She adds that while a slot known as “buyers’ time” will be set aside to allow for the sale of items that is not, customarily the primary purpose of the event.
While Sumner told Stabroek Business that she understands the preoccupation of small operators with realizing as many immediate sales as possible she points out that helping to facilitate longer-term markets and not immediate sales is Go-Invest’s preoccupation.
Not that the agency does anything to suppress the efforts of the exhibitors to dispose of their goods. In fact, as part of the agreement with Go-Invest the entity takes no responsibility for shipping goods back to Guyana at the end of the event, the argument being that there is no expectation that any exhibitor will take excessively large volumes of stock to Barbados.
BMEX, Sumner and Chester-Harding believe, provides a useful but challenging opportunity. Local products will be in competition with products from North America and that is probably as stiff a challenge as local producers can face. The Go-Invest duo are optimistic about how Guyanese producers are likely to fare. Chester-Harding points out that Guyanese products have traditionally fared well on the Barbados market, whilst Sumner told Stabroek Business that she was personally impressed with the quality of local furniture that will be part of this year’s BMEX event.
Sumner says that within Go-Invest there is a sustained preoccupation with determining ways of improving the quality of service to local producers. She believes that the entity can better serve the local art and craft and creative sectors if they choose to work in clusters. She explains that part of the challenge that reposes in dealing with the export market lies in the “demand for volumes.” Accordingly, she says that where individuals can become larger groups that agree to work together, such arrangements offer a greater assurance that external market demand can be met.
