Jubilee celebrations opened doors for international commerce

Jun 05, 2016 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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Visitors to Guyana impact on agriculture, animal husbandry, meat and seafood production, planting and ultimately the reaping of vegetables, seasonings, fruits, ground provisions and of course, our rice staples.
It therefore came as no surprise that food – authentic Guyanese cuisine – was the product mostly in demand during the 50th Independence anniversary celebrations. Our citizens must have figured it out quite some time ago, but the first tangible indication was the speed with which the food courts booths mainly at GuyExpo and the Jubilee Festival were taken up.
In fact, the organizers had to create additional ground space and mobile food units to accommodate the extremely large number of Guyanese who were ready to show and sell the plethora of food they Guyanese offered home-style dishes like calalloo and salted shark/snapper; pumpkin with freshwater shrimp; bora and pork; saime with fried fish … and the tourists, mostly native Guyanese who had not come home in 30 or 50 years, could not get enough. The first-time visitors though, were wowed by the delectable tastes and creative combinations of food that could only be had in Guyana.
On the final day of the Jubilee festival at the National Stadium, “A Taste of Guyana” was on show – curried duck cooked by the national winners of the annual Duck Curry competition; Conkie, foo-foo and other African treats cooked by the African Cultural Development Association; pepperpot, cassava bread and other Amerindian treats prepared on site by indigenous people; Fried Rice, wantons, dim sum and other treats prepared by the Chinese Association; and the range of cosmopolitan dishes prepared by the chapters of the Rotary Club of Guyana.
Some of the visitors have returned to their home countries and it’s as if they cannot stop talking about the amazing experiences they’ve just had in Guyana. Many were moved to tears, especially in the new Jubilee Stadium as the massive Golden Arrowhead was raised. They didn’t mind that the breezes that took the flag to ramrod straightness this same time last year didn’t co-operate this year and we all had to be satisfied with just enough to unfurl this symbol of nationhood at a sedate pace. But to hear the visitors tell it in the streets of New York, St. Vincent, Barbados or the Dominican Republic, they had the time of their lives. They shouted, they played mass, they visited relatives in Berbice, Lethem, Essequibo; they travelled to the bauxite town, the former ‘party capital’ of the nation and lit up Town Week 2016.
To the last man, woman and teenager, future Independence or Mashramani celebrations should take on the same tone, emphasis on nationhood and oneness. This they believe, will open up the possibilities for expanded business and markets in commercial products, agricultural products (even lemons that just grow along the Mahaica River), and services.
The words of encouragement received from some visitors and the commitments others made to enter into partnerships with existing entrepreneurs, or establish new businesses to produce secondary and tertiary products, surely indicate that the still ongoing Jubilee has netted some gains, foreseen and unforeseen.
ENHANCED POSSIBILITIES FOR TOURISM
The tourism industry, led by the Ministry of Public Telecommunications with responsibility for Tourism, began in 2015 a studied campaign to boost the visibility of
Guyana. It is not too early to toot some horns, but we already know that this campaign titled “Guyana – South America Undiscovered” has had measurable successes … and it has only just begun.
We’ve been ‘selling’ our attributes to the World’s One Billon Tourists (figure provided by the World Tourism Council (WTC). Tourism, the WTC insists, is the fastest growing service industry in the world that is raking in Billions of dollars from the Billions of tourists who travel the world with a willingness to spend.  The WTC has also determined that eco/nature-based tourism is the fastest growing segment of this global industry and Guyana with its vast potential for development of its natural products and attributes holds a distinct competitive advantage.
Guyana’s visibility has climbed tremendously over the past year. The definitive numbers are still being tabulated, but the emerging picture indicates clearly that the Golden Jubilee celebrations alone brought thousands of pairs of feet onto our soil. Thousands of mouths were fed with Guyana’s tasty foods; thousands of feet walked into our business places; from thousands of pockets hundreds of thousands of dollars emerged to pay for goods and services; and thousands of people who were entertained in and outside of the city.
Local businesses owners have established partnerships, some of which are intended to boost their product ranges and quality. Others will benefit from new international markets for their end products, from mettai, guava cheese and tamarind balls to mattresses and dressed lumber.
The benefits for Guyana in the short to medium term cannot be over emphasized. While the productive sectors – sugar, rice, bauxite and gold, go through the rigours of reinvention and new market penetration, this tourism sector is delivering to the national coffers, with visits to Kaieteur Falls alone climbing approximately 220 percent between 2011 and 2015.
World visibility for Guyana shot up exponentially during the Guyana leg of the 50th Independence Jubilee. Next week, Guyanese organisations all across the diaspora from New York to Toronto, Holland to Sweden, will host commemorative activities to mark this awesome historical achievement in the country of their birth.
The group in East Orange, New Jersey will host a flag raising ceremony, and there will be slew of gala events, literary fairs, lecture series and picture exhibitions. In New York, the activities include an interfaith prayer service, a UN reception, a flag-raising ceremony, a unity concert, a symposium, an art exhibition, a day of volunteerism, an investment conference, the President’s Soccer Tournament, a state dinner and the Mashramani festival and parade as a grand finale.
The piece de grace is a special Investment conference at the Harvard Club in New York, to which several Guyanese Ministers of Government have been invited. With key support from GOInvest, Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin, Minister of Public Telecommunications/Tourism Cathy Hughes, and Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson are expected to highlight the ease with which potential investors may participate in the growth of a country led by a government with novel policies, offering attractive conditions that may include land leases, tax and duty concessions/waivers on equipment and end products.

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