Persons on the road checking out what was on offer during New Amsterdam Town Day activities
Over the next year, the Berbice Chamber of Commerce will continually work towards creating opportunities for establishing small businesses in New Amsterdam, Region 6. This was according to Berbice Chambers of Commerce Representative, Imran Sacoor at the closing of the New Amsterdam Town week on Saturday which was celebrated under the theme “Collaboration and Unity for the Restoration of New Amsterdam”.
New Amsterdam is one of the most economically balanced towns in Berbice, that is driven by private and public sector organisations. Sacoor stated that the town has many opportunities for small businesses, but persons need to understand how positively this can contribute to the town’s development.
“Too often we’ve heard persons saying that New Amsterdam is limited in terms of resources and they don’t have potential, but we have to create the opportunity,” he said.
Sacoor noted that events like the town week give residents the opportunity to showcase and to realise their potential. He reiterated that collaboration is needed to continue on this path. Sacoor pointed out that the banks have been making finances available to small businesses and Government has created the infrastructure to facilitate small business development.
In other countries persons would have to go through numerous legal steps to establish a business, whereas in Guyana the process is very simple, persons can just start a business and register it through the Courts, Sacoor noted.
He stated that business people in New Amsterdam need to showcase their offerings to the wider community in order to invigorate interest that comes to the commercial town. He pointed out the people from as far as Linden, Region 10, and Georgetown were vending during the activities, and it is unfortunate that people from the town didn’t take advantage of the opportunity.
Sacoor acknowledged that in recent years the celebrations have become more of a street lime instead of a business focused activity, however, this year an exhibition area was established for businesses to showcase their products including food and clothing stalls, a vet shop and Digicel among others. Sacoor stated that overall this year’s event was better than the last two years, and commended the Ministry of Tourism for its continuous support to the activities, especially in the resuscitation of the 63 Beach which is one of the major tourist attractions in New Amsterdam.
The event was brought to a close after a week of celebrations which included activities such as a domino competition, a senior citizens’ day, an impromptu speech competition, a gospel and movie night, an exhibition and street fair, and a wash down.
by Guyana Times International