Originally conceptualized as a forum intended primarily to expose local “export ready” business houses to foreign potential buyers, this week’s Guyana Trade and Investment Exhibition (GUYTIE) which commenced on Wednesday at the Marriott Hotel and concludes tomorrow ‘went back on its word,’ including eight small, women-run enterprises that do not, at this stage, meet most of the ‘export ready’ criteria for participation, set by the organizers, in what is seen locally as the country’s first ever big-stage business-to-business event that puts local and foreign enterprises together primarily in yet another effort to boost international market access for local products.
Credit for the opportunity afforded the eight fortunate to have secured what some would regard as a breakthrough opportunity arising out of the presence here of ‘buyers’ from locations ranging from the Caribbean and the hemisphere to India and the Republic of Korea, is being given to the local Small Business Bureau (SBB) whose Chief Executive Officer Dr. Lowell Porter told Stabroek Business on Wednesday that his role as one of a team of state and private sector officials put together to support the effective delivery of the GUYTIE event, had positioned the Bureau to make a case for the inclusion of small businesses in the event. The eight enterprises afforded the opportunity to promote their modest mostly agro-processing ventures are Diekas Spices, SS Natural Flavour Sauces, South American Cocoa Company, Magnificent Flavours Scented Candles, Amazon Authentics, D’s Body Therapy, Pleasurable Flavours and Nature’s Finest Herbal Teas.
A representative of one of the eight enterprises selected to ‘take the stage’ at GUYTIE told Stabroek Business that while immediate significant access to an external market was not an “immediate focus,” any interface with visiting businesses from the region that might lead to “joint venture arrangements” in the areas of production and marketing would be regarded as a major breakthrough.