Invest SVG set to host expo in carnival season

Local entrepreneurs will have yet another chance to market their products, as Invest SVG has announced that it will host an expo during the carnival season.

Annette Mark, the executive director of Invest SVG made the announcement on Friday during a cocktail launch of the Everything Vincy Plus Expo 2019.

“Some have asked why are we launching Everything Vincy Expo so early this year. Well, there are two main reasons for this, and to start with the easy explanation, we will be hosting a mini expo at carnival to focus mainly on persons involving craft, food, music and fashion,” she said.

The carnival edition of the expo will be held on July 4 and 5 at Heritage Square.

Mark added that the 2019 installation of the expo in October will be “bigger and better” this year in quality and what is afforded to the participants and persons visiting the exhibition.

She also said that Invest SVG expects more regional and diaspora participation. And her entity has been working along with the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) to spread the word regionally.

“CEDA will also be funding the attendance of at least 20 buyers targeting certain industries and businesses to allow for greater possibilities of increased export of products from St Vincent and the Grenadines,” Mark said.

Annette Mark, the executive director of Invest SVG

The executive producer further revealed Invest SVG’s collaboration with CEDA to initiate an Angel Investor Programme in St Vincent and the Grenadines so that micro, small and medium enterprises can have access to private investment opportunities and expertise from investors.

“The Angel investor programme has been successfully tried and tested in Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago with over 20 businesses benefitting from the programme. Internationally, companies such as Facebook, Uber and Amazon to name a few, have all grown into mega operations as a result of angel investing,” she said.

Mark said that CEDA will also be assisting with training for both existing exhibitors and new exhibitors for the Everything Vincy Plus Expo 2019.

Damie Sinanan, a representative from CEDA, also delivered brief remarks at Friday’s ceremony.

He said that the agency is mandated to enhance competitiveness of regional small and medium sized enterprises, promote trade and development and promote stronger investment corporation between CARICOM and the Dominican Republic.

And these mandates are carried out by providing access to financing, increased access to training and market opportunities as well as more comprehensive trade and business intelligence so that persons can make more informed decisions relating to export.

“Caribbean Export recognises that trade shows such as Everything Vincy Expo continue to be a powerful tool in helping companies reach and expand to new export markets and forge long term relationships,” Sinanan said. “Trade show participation allows growing companies to market products and services to a larger, specified group of potential customers and every year, thousands of trade shows across the world offer opportunities for buyers and sellers to come face-to-face and with millions of dollars of businesses resulting.”

The CEDA representative said that the organisation will provide technical assistance and training to exhibitors at the local expo and continue its work with Invest SVG to bring further interventions to this country.

He made reference to the Angel Investors Programme and added that other projects are already in the pipeline.

Camillo Gonsalves, in his capacity as minister of economic planning and sustainable development, said last year’s expo was hugely successful.

“…It gave lie to the fiction that Vincentians are only consumers and not producers and that whatever is it we produce is of a substandard quality because we showed in that expo that our producers, our crafts people, service providers, our fashion designers, our artists and artisans, our manufacturers are second to none in the region and produce excellent goods that can stand up to anybody’s scrutiny anywhere in the world,” he said.

Gonsalves said the exhibitors at the expo have the potential to become the engine of growth and development in this country, particularly with increasing numbers of tourists visiting SVG.

He added that businesses should think locally, regionally and globally and understand that their competitors can be anywhere in the world; and so too can their target audience.

“Three times as many tourists came to St Vincent and the Grenadines last year as there citizens. They are a market. We are in an Eastern Caribbean union of approaching one million people, where goods travel freely, they are our market. We are in a Caribbean community and if you count Haiti, we’re approaching 14 million, they are our market and there are of course the whole wide world of 7 billion, they are also our market if you can find the right niche,” the minister said.

“…Understand that their competitor is not the business down the hall from them…but their competitor could be somebody in Antigua, Jamaica or China and we think and we are confident that you are more than able to surpass those products and we think that you are more than able to put SVG on map as producer of quality products and exporter of top quality goods and services.”

Applications forms for persons wishing to exhibit their products at the Everything Vincy Plus Expo in October 2019 may be accessed at www.everythingvincyexpo.com from tomorrow. Application forms may also be collected from the Invest SVG office on the second floor of the Administrative Building in Kingstown.

The deadline for submitting applications is April 30.