Guyana first country invited to Expo Jamaica

For the first time in over 50 years, companies from a foreign country will be able to market their products at Expo Jamaica – the large trade show and exhibition in the Caribbean, Vice President of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association Richard Coe said on Wednesday.

Guyanese companies will be the first non-Jamaican businesses to participate in the upcoming expo, Coe said at a reception for the visiting Jamaican business delegation held at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.

The decision to invite Guyanese businesses followed discussions between the association and Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Aubyn Hill.

Hill is leading a 75-member business delegation to Guyana this week, just three months after he visited the country with a smaller delegation.

“… we realised that the relationship we have with Guyana is so special that we had to give it serious consideration and we knew that the relations that we have to have, have to be bilateral so it has to go both ways,” Coe told the News Room.

He added, “We accepted that this is an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up.”

The long-standing event was first held in 1971 and is deemed the largest and most impactful trade show of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean.

This year, the theme of the expo is: “Connecting the World to Jamaica”.

Coe said that buyers from all across the globe will be expected at the expo. As such, he believes that Guyanese companies, whether those in the manufacturing sector or otherwise, will be able to market their products.