Guyana’s future depends on agri-tourism – Business Minister

…as Berbice Expo and Trade Fair launched
The 15th Annual Berbice Expo and Trade Fair was recently launched under the theme “Promoting a favourable business and investment climate”.

The four-day event, which is promoted by the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce (CCCC), will be held at the Albion Sports Complex from September 27 to 30.
The exposition was officially launched by Business Minister Haimraj Rajkumar, who emphasised the need to push agriculture and tourism.
He admitted that the economic contributions that Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) made to the national economy were enormous. On this note, he added that only recently, the American Stock Exchange recognised that Guyana’s economy was one of the fastest growing in the world.

Nevertheless, he stated that the tourism sector has also been growing at a fast rate.
“We are going in the right direction,” Rajkumar added while noting that the future of Guyana depended heavily on its agriculture and emergent oil and gas sector.
“We will continue to promote these two sectors – tourism and agriculture so in October we will be having an agri-tourism drive, where we will be sensitising persons on how they can use agri-tourism to develop themselves. Region Six has the potential and has been contributing in agricultural sector. All we have to do now is bridge the two sectors and make one big product – agri-tourism.”
The Minister added that the agri-tourism expo will be held with the goal of developing a green tourism sector.
“With this coming on stream, the Private Sector will play an integral role in tourism and in agriculture. They will have to come together to plan and plot a way forward, so that all the players will be able to have a product that persons in Guyana and those abroad can benefit from,” Rajkumar added.
He explained that over the years, Guyana has been receiving significant interest from persons wanting to invest in the country. This can be attributed to the new-found resources in Guyana.
“So, a lot of persons will be coming to our country wherever to work industry or bringing their families to spend some time with them while in Guyana. We must be prepared. We must have the required standards so that when visitors arrive, they will be able to be accommodated up to the standards expected.”
Meanwhile, CCCC President Mohamed Raffik explained the Chamber spent over $2 million it made from the last Expo on developmental projects in the community.
Since the Expo started 19 years ago, Raffik highlighted that 14 schools have benefited from projects undertaken by the Chamber.
“The money that we get from the Expo is spent quite a lot on community projects. Recently, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Rose Hall Town Council to develop a playfield, which is situated not far from our Chamber’s office so that children in the area could have recreational time,” Raffik explained.
The CCCC will be giving concessions to small entrepreneurs, continuing an initiative which was started two years ago.