World Trade Center encourages trade-marking

Oct 18, 2025 News

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…chair says ‘will support local business community in understanding ropes’

(Kaieteur News) – Chairman of the World Trade Center Guyana, Komal Samaroo, is encouraging local businesses to pursue trade-marking to ensure they are protected.

Speaking during a media briefing on Friday, Samaroo told reporters that the entity is a trade association and the focus is to facilitate bringing businesses and partners together and respond to requests from the private sector.

“We will reach out to our network of World Trade Centers around the world to try and see how we can capitalise on the synergies that exist between the opportunities being offered here and the market that exists. We are a facilitator. We will do our best to facilitate as much as we possibly can,” he said.

Speaking on the importance of trademarks Samaroo said that each territory and jurisdiction has its own trademark law. Once someone registers a trademark they are protected.

He explained that, “if you use a trademark in a jurisdiction where somebody else has it registered, then you have a problem. You are inching on their trademark. We will try as much as we can to bring the knowledge of the regulations here, and it’s up to individual entrepreneurs to try and follow those.”

The chair reminded that Demerara Rum is the first rum in the Caribbean to be registered in the European Union under the geographic regulation. He said Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) is ahead of the curve.

“When you are registered as a product of a particular geographic area, then that is regulated and supervised by the jurisdiction. So, if somebody today tries and sell them in Europe that doesn’t come from here, they’re committing a criminal offense,” he highlighted.

If a name is registered and someone else is going after it, that is grounds for civil action to be taken. Therefore, Samaroo and his team have committed to do their best to impart this knowledge onto the business community in Guyana.

“We are trying to empower people, empower people and empower businesses to be more internationally trade oriented and to see the market beyond the Guyana market…our executive director here has been talking to all the private sector organisations because this concept is very new in Guyana, and we want to make sure everybody understands our role. We do not infringe in any way in what any other private sector organisation is doing,” he added.

The World Trade Center Guyana is set to be officially opened on Tuesday. Around 60 delegates from other World Trade Centers and other international organisations will be in country for the week-long activities beginning Sunday with the witnessing of the Diwali motorcade.

This will be followed by a welcome dinner on Monday at which Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd is scheduled to speak.

The following day will be spent engaging in workshops, business discussions and a class which will entail the issuing of a certificate of completion.

President Irfaan Ali commissioned CARICOM’s first World Trade Centre (WTC) in Guyana in June- an entity he hopes would leverage the country as a magnet for trade and investment.

Located on High Street, Kingston, Georgetown, the World Trade Centre Georgetown was made possible through negotiations between the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) and the World Trade Centre Association (WTCA), headquartered in New York.

President Ali had noted that the ceremony was not just about the commissioning of a building, but another symbolic investment that tells the story of the country and the significant growth and development that is being created.

“It’s also very important that we have (a) building like the World Trade Centre to signify Guyana’s positioning. We are trying to position our country in the globe in a way that is going to be transformative for us and transformative for this region. We are very confident about the outlook of our country, but we are even more confident about the role we can play, and we will play in the global economy,” he said.

The president said that with the type of investment opportunities coming Guyana’s way, the World Trade Centre and similar organisations with a network are critical for Guyana’s current phase of transformation.

“It’s no longer a phase of development, it’s a phase of transformation (and) it also requires transformative thinking. Our mindset must also be geared towards what is needed and what is required in this transformative environment,” he related.

According to the president, one of the issues for the country’s small and medium sized enterprises, is creating an enabling environment to help them with their competitiveness, to meet the standards that international market would accept, to help them to get cheap capital and to help them to get access to technology that will make their businesses viable. He noted the WTC can play a crucial part in helping to address issues like these.

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• business, Komal Samaroo, trade-marking, trademark, World Trade Center

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