Buyers from all across the globe will be expected at the expo

For the first time in over 50 years, companies from a foreign country will be able to market their products at the upcoming Expo Jamaica, regarded as the largest trade show and exhibition in the Caribbean.

Richard Coe, vice president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), made the announcement during a reception at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown, Guyana on Wednesday (Januart 25) for the visiting Jamaican business delegation to the South American-Caribbean country.

Guyanese companies will be the first non-Jamaican businesses to participate in the upcoming expo, slated for April 27-30 at the National Arena and the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston.

In his presentation at the function, Coe pointed out that buyers from all across the globe will be expected at the expo and, as such, he believes that Guyanese companies, whether those in the manufacturing sector or otherwise, will be able to market their products.

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

In an interview with the News Room in Guyana, Coe explained, “… 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.”

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

Expo Jamaica 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’.