The opening of the World Trade Center (WTC) in Guyana has been pushed back to February 2024 as a result of delays in the shipment of building materials and other factors.
This is according to Executive Director of WTC Georgetown, Wesley Kirton, during an interview with this publication. World Trade Center Georgetown – the first in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) region – was initially set to open in February 2023.
But according to Kirton, some setbacks have caused a postponement in the opening up of the center in Guyana. However, he noted that works were progressing now.
“We had some issues with the supply chain. We had to bring in steel for the building and some other materials, so that kept us back. We’re next to the [Guyana] Elections Commission, and so some days when they were meeting during the Local Government Elections, we couldn’t use any high-powered equipment that made noise. But we’re now moving ahead.”
“We are looking at possible completion of the building in October and the plan is to officially open to coincide with the Republic anniversary celebrations next year,” Kirton explained.
Local beverage giant Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) had acquired the licence in 2022 to set up the WTC in Georgetown with the aim of connecting Guyanese businesses with potential partners around the world, to access information as well as new markets through the network of more than 300 World Trade Centers globally.
According to DDL Chairman Komal Samaroo, who is also the Chairman of the WTC Georgetown, they will be pushing the local Private Sector to participate in the global market.
“I am hoping that the World Trade Center… is going to help us as a country and will help the Private Sector to develop an outward-looking vision so that we create more brands around the world. It must not only be rum but other things,” Samaroo stated during an event on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, Kirton, a US-based Guyanese, who is the President of the Guyanese American Chamber of Commerce (GACC), further pointed out that even though the WTC Georgetown building was still under construction, they have already gotten expressions of interest from both local and foreign companies to rent office space at the Center.
He added that some of the floors in the building would be set aside for activities such as conferences and training sessions.
The WTC Georgetown official noted that they have already started some groundwork ahead of the opening of the Center, working with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to ascertain their challenges and what opportunities they are looking for as well as prepare them to access international markets.
“Guyanese products accessing markets has been a bit difficult, either because of legislation or because of whatever the reason… might be something like phytosanitary measures that need to be met. So, we will try to provide the training and whatever information, and so on, is necessary to have local producers/manufacturers be able to meet those phytosanitary standards that are required for market access,” he said.
Kirton went on to recall a case in 2019 whereby a local soap producer attempted to export her products to the United States but was unable to do so, because a label on her packaging claimed that the soap would get rid of acne.
According to the WTC Executive, the product was flagged by US authorities since there were no scientific/medical evidence to support that claim.
“We had a buyer for her… but had she had the information that she couldn’t enter the US market with making such a claim that wasn’t proven, she would’ve gotten a small order or two and would have been able to expand. So, these are the kinds of things we want to assist with,” he noted.
Another case that was highlighted by the US-based Guyanese businessman was the importation of a piece of equipment by a local small producer. However, when the equipment was set up, it did not work properly.
“So, we want to guide and advise people when they’re going to purchase things like that and help them out. Right now, we’re gathering information on some of the things that affect small Guyanese businesses and see how we can fashion our programmes to have better systems in place to help them.”
In the meantime, Kirton added that the WTC Georgetown was also collaborating with other Trade Centers around the world to look at their programmes and see what could work in Guyana as well as create ties to foster trade relations.
“In terms of preparing training modules, we’re drawing on the experiences of World Trade Centers in other places. We signed some MoUs [Memoranda of Understanding] already with some World Trade Centers to look at collaboration… like working with other Trade Centers in different countries to help with market access for products in Guyana… The basic objective is to generate business and investments for Guyana,” Kirton noted.
Already, the World Trade Center Georgetown has signed several MoUs with the WTCs in China, Ghana, Canada, and Colombia.
“In Toronto, for instance, they have a very good training module for small enterprises particularly when it comes to preparing for the export market… [Then] the World Trade Center in Colombia is particularly interested in working with us in developing trade between certain countries in Latin America and Guyana. And so, that’s the kind of things we’re working on right now – identifying products are needed in certain Latin American markets that we in Guyana can produce and to share that information with locals to see whether we can work with them to access the Latin American market in the future,” Kirton revealed.
