The Linden Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Development (LCICD), in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, and the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST), has begun preparations for the second Annual Trade Fair and Exposition, which will attract thousands to the bauxite mining town.
The much-anticipated Linden Expo 2011 was officially launched on March 30, and will be staged from April 29 to May 1, 2011 at the Egbert Benjamin Exhibition Centre as part of the Linden Town Week observance. This year’s theme is “Moving Ahead – Responding to the Challenges of Free Trade”.
This year, the Linden Expo, which is included on the Ministry of Tourism’s Calendar of Events, is expecting a large delegation from SEBRAE (the Portuguese acronym for Brazil Micro and Small Business Support Organisation) which will be promising for Linden’s commerce, as it augurs well for networking and business opportunities. The Expo will see participating companies from various fields, including wholesale, distribution, manufacturing, financial, business development, tourism and educational services, and arts and craft, among others.
According to the LCICD committee, the first Linden Expo organized by the Chamber was held in 2009 following retrenchment by BOSAI. The chamber executives realized that money circulating in the community would be reduced significantly, and business would suffer accordingly. The Linden Expo was therefore created to expose goods manufactured in the region to the very large number of persons visiting during Linden Town Week. The expectation was that the large number of visitors included business people, who are always on the lookout for business opportunities. This proved to be true, since most of the exhibitors made significant sales and had follow-up orders from businesses in Georgetown and further afield.
Due to the very successful and overwhelming response, exhibitors requested a repeat of the Linden Expo immediately after the end of the Linden Expo 2009. LCICD saw it as integral to the development of Linden’s commerce to continue their planning of the Expo.
The very first successful Expo in 2010 attracted the participation of over 48 companies; and this year, LCICD hopes that it will attract foreign delegates and tourists, and the committee will continue unremittingly in it’s efforts to develop the Linden town.
