SOUTH FLORIDA – A website and FaceBook page have been launched to provide business enterprises and members of the general public with easy access to updated information about the Guyana Trade, Tourism and Investment Expo to be held here later this month.
The website www.gttie.com and FaceBook page include a matchmaker program through which companies interested in distributorships and/or ongoing purchases of products on show at the expo can sign up in advance for meetings with the visiting companies during the event.
The Guyana Trade, Tourism and Investment Expo 2014 is being organized by the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), the Consulate of Guyana in Florida and Broward College under the auspices of Florida State Representative Hon. Hazelle P. Rogers and Broward County Mayor the Hon. Barbara Sharief. A number of agencies and organizations, including Enterprise Florida, the Broward County Commission for Economic and Small Business Development, the Global Trade Chamber and the Greater Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce of Florida, are collaborating with the organizers to ensure the success of the event.
The expo will be held October 31 and November 1 at the Omni Auditorium at Broward College, Coconut Creek. Some 60 companies and artisans have already confirmed their participation and a container with products is scheduled to sail from Guyana today, according to chairman of the event’s planning committee, Wesley Kirton.
“Plans for this event are progressing well and we are pleased that the Government of Guyana through Go-Invest and the United States Government through its Embassy in Georgetown have facilitated at the Guyana end, the opportunity for these businesses, many of them small and medium sized enterprises and artisans, to take advantage of the exposure they will get and the markets they hopefully can develop at the expo,” Kirton said.
He also pointed to the critical role being played by agencies such as the Broward County Economic Commission, Enterprise Florida, the Global Trade Chamber and the Caribbean Chamber in driving interest in the event especially among potential buyers, suppliers and investors here in the United States.
“Our matchmaker program is gaining momentum and we hope to have several one-on-one meetings between the visiting companies and interested ones at this end. The Broward County Economic and Small Business Commission is leading the arrangements for a session on the afternoon of Friday, October 31, entitled ‘Doing Business with Guyana’ while a workshop on ‘Exporting to the US through Florida’ is billed for that Friday morning,” the planning committee chairman disclosed.
Kirton said the expo is being aggressively promoted through Chambers of Commerce and other business organizations as well as to the general public for whom attendance at the expo is free of cost. “We expect that the Guyanese and other members of the Caribbean Diaspora in and beyond Florida will come by the expo to view the range of products on offer and to familiarize themselves with these products as well as Guyana’s tourism attractions and investment opportunities.”
