Dear Editor,
Reference is made to a letter titled ‘SN should publish contact details for small businesses’ written by Ms Jennifer Bulkan in your Tuesday, December 8 edition.
I thank Ms Bulkan for expressing her interest in contacting business owners with a view to obtaining their products and services.
Permit me to make a few points in response to the contents of her letter:
- The just concluded Business Exposition was not a replacement for GuyExpo and should be seen in the light of its stated objectives. GuyExpo is slated for May 2016 and the Minister of Business will soon make an announcement revealing the date, etc.
An objective of Business Exposition 2015 was “To promote an event that is a catalyst for the development of local small and medium size businesses in Guyana.”
- Loud music and other stage performances associated with GuyExpo ‘a crowd puller’ for many persons, were absent by design.
- Large companies, though encouraged to utilize the vehicle of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to propel the development and growth of small businesses, were not exhibitors and therefore, the pull factor of giveaways and the launching of new products was not a part of Business Exposition 2015 by design.
As a consequence of the aforementioned, the Exposition was devoid of the normal “crowd and noise” referred to in Ms Bulkan’s letter, a decision which was warmly embraced by patrons and exhibitors.
I am attaching a list of exhibitors and their contact details. SN may wish to consider publishing same as a public service gesture.
In closing, I wish to quote from President David Granger’s message published in the Business Exposition 2015 commemorative magazine:
“Our Government’s policy is to create avenues for small businesses to promote their activities and to highlight the important role they play in sustaining economic growth in our country.
- Small businesses are important to the global economy. They are believed to account for more than 95% of all businesses in the world and for 65% of the overall employment in the private sector.
- Small businesses help to make local economies more viable and to allow for the participation of individuals, small partnerships and grouping in the economy.
- Small businesses are incubators of innovation, are important sources of employment reduce poverty, empower women and provide opportunities for young people.
- Small businesses are often the principle source of income for thousands of households within our country.
- Small businesses are indispensable to the health of our economy
“The government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana recognises the invaluable role of small businesses to the economic and social development of our country and to improving the well-being of households and families”
The planning for Business Exposition 2015 was based on the foregoing parameters.
Yours faithfully,
Derrick Cummings
Chairman of the Planning
Committee
Business Exposition 2015
