G-Invest and Guyana’s participation in Barbados Agro Fest

For reasons that have to do with all of the various aspects of preparations by local contingents for participation in important regional and international events that require a fair amount of planning and preparation, it is customary that public disclosure on such events be incremental.

The announcements with the various aspects of the planning seeking to provide assurances that the contingents are ‘on track’ for standout participation, particularly when putting on a good show on foreign soil has to do with national pride and with marketing the country and what it has to offer. An event like the annual Barbados Agro Fest fits snugly into that category, this, not just because Guyana has a particular reputation for expertise in the Agro Processing sector but, as well, because Barbados, for reasons that have to do with its particular reputation as a tourism haven, provides opportunities for the exposure of such Agro produce to expanded markets to which Guyana does not customarily have comparable access.

Accordingly, for Guyana, gaps between the initial disclosure and the event itself, in the instance of the Barbados Agro Fest is usually filled with information that sets out plans/ arrangements for Guyana’s participation therein. This has been, unchangingly, the standard practice over time. It is intended to keep both the participating Agro Processors and the public, as a whole, ‘in the loop’, so to speak. There are times, it has to be said, when the local planners, including the state institutions involved in the planning, display a fair measure of ineptness that gives rise to misinformation and, not infrequently, to information dissemination blackouts. Needless to say, such occurrences interfere negatively with planning for participation in these events.

This is the second year in which G-Invest has been given the responsibility. There had been a time, previously, when much of the planning had been assigned to the Guyana Marketing Corporation. The reason for the shift as far as we are aware, has never been made public. Planning and executing multi-faceted assignments that have to do with Guyana’s participation in regional and international events promoting Guyana’s image/products externally, is a multi-faceted assignment. It involves, in large measure, keeping local and external audiences continuously updated on pertinent matters pertaining to the assignment. It also has to do with

providing local participants with certain types of assurances with regard to their participation therein. In the instance of the Barbados Agro Fest, the particular issues of the air freighting of vendors’ products to Barbados as well as state support for financing air fares to Barbados have arisen. This newspaper has received complaints about the manner of selection of Agro Processors for state support though we have not ever been presented with what one might call prima facie evidence to substantiate such complaints.

Periodic, timely and reliable information regarding the various processes and procedures leading up to local contingents’ participation in events like the Barbados Agro Fest is critical and here it has to be said that in matters of this kind the designated planners in Guyana have not been consistently efficient in their execution. We often tend to fail badly when it comes to keeping both the participants in such events and the general public, in the loop, so to speak. It is this failing, particularly, that frequently gives rise to strident criticism of the planning processes. Specifically, and not infrequently, there are complaints of information blackouts that lead to concerns that have to do with the transparency of the processes associated with participation in such events.

This time around a great deal of that happened. This newspaper received inquiries from Agro Processors about participation in the Agro Fest which suggested that there had been ‘blackouts’ in the dissemination of information on the arrangements for participation in the event and our own attempts to engage G-Invest on these issues were met with awkward and altogether unconvincing responses which, in every instance, had to do with the unavailability of the designated officials to respond to our inquiries.

As early as late in January, the Stabroek Business had been informed by an Agro Processor who appeared to be ‘in the know’ that plans were in place for the movement of vendors’ products to Barbados in circumstances where, up to that time, no official information was forthcoming from G-Invest. Meanwhile, the Stabroek Business was receiving calls (at least four) from Agro Processors who were requesting information on means through which their airline tickets to Barbados and their physical

accommodation might benefit from some form of subsidy. It was unable to provide any such information. It was the persistent inquiries of a handful of Agro Processors that eventually caused Stabroek Business to make contact with G-Invest on the matter of Guyana’s participation in the Barbados event. While three separate telephone calls to the agency were turned back by responses that had to do with the unavailability of the functionary responsible for the dissemination of the requisite information on the event, the Wednesday, February 7th issue of Barbados Today made the disclosure regarding Guyana’s intended participation in the event.

Thrice subsequent to the February 7th Barbados Today disclosure, contact was established with GInvest to inquire about an official Government of Guyana release on the matter. On each of those three occasions the official reportedly responsible for speaking on the matter was not available. We know little about G-Invest’s particular capabilities in the matter of interfacing with the media on issues pertaining to the timely dissemination of information and on providing briefings on matters pertaining to the country’s involvement in events like the Barbados Agro Fest. Indeed, quite why there appeared to be no planned and sustained information flow from G-Invest specifically on the issue of Guyana’s participation in Agro Fest 2024 is unclear. To go further, the eventual official local disclosure, on Friday, February 23rd, the opening day of the event, that Guyana was participating in Agro Fest 2024, reflected a handling of information dissemination which, truth be told, was downright amateurish.

Incidentally, while Guyana continued to dither over any official disclosure of information on local participation in the Agro Fest event up to a few days ago, (and despite this newspaper’s call for disclosure on the matter) the Barbados Today newspaper had, as early as February 9th, disclosed that Guyana (and Suriname) would participate in the event.