The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) will be hosting a special two-day seminar next month to help local entrepreneurs catapult their businesses to the next level.
The Business Development Forum, which will be held on July 20th and 21st at the Pegasus Hotel, caters for entrepreneurs operating at every scale—from the plantain chip or fruit vendor to large local and foreign companies. The forum, according to Executive Director of the GCCI Richard Rambarran, will facilitate networking between the participants and is geared towards helping them to “evolve their roadmap to success.”
“We are looking across the board, any business that wants to grow, any business that wants to move their business from one level to the next level, then this is the place to be,” Rambarran said on Friday during the private sector body’s launch of the forum.
A $20,000 payment will get participants a booth and two-day access to the event, which is being held under the theme “How to be competitive, compliant and compensated.” The participation fee will also give compliant small businesses immediate membership with the decades-old body, exempting them from paying membership fees until next year.
“We are not waiving the requirements, we are waiving the fee. The business requirements are set out. You have to get business registration, NIS registration and compliance, your TIN Certificate and a profile, which basically is a short write up of the operations for our record keeping,” Rambarran said.
GCCI member Vishnu Doerga, who also heads the business consultancy ActionCOACH Guyana, believes that with Guyana soon to have a booming oil economy, the time is ripe for small businesses to begin preparing to meet the standards needed for an international presence while networking.
“I think it is time for small businesses to really get in order to leverage the opportunities which will be afforded,” he said.
“If someone should ask you—‘How do you grow from small to medium… or medium to large?’—this forum will answer your questions. Here, businesses [will] come and share experiences of success and failures, so you use that to better your own businesses,” he added.
The Chamber has partnered with the Guyana Revenue Authority, Nations University, Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, Republic Bank Guyana and the International Monetary Fund. Experts from the respective organisations will provide on the spot support and answer questions, if needed, for participants.
Areas of focus for discussions in the segments include, but are not limited to, access to capital, insurance policies, incentives for investment, export market readiness and donor agency funding, among others.
Speakers slated for the sessions are Owen Verwey of Go-Invest, Marcia Harris of the GRA’s Tax Advisory Department, Rosh Khan of the Masterclass Institute and Nation’s University owner Brian O’Toole, among others.
Information on the event can be accessed by contacting the GCCI Headquarters at 156 Waterloo Street, Georgetown, or calling their numbers, 226-3519 and 225-5846.
