Western Expo 2000 to open Thursday

WESTERN BUREAU:

FOLLOWING A one-year break, Western Expo 2000, western Jamaica's premier trade show, will open on Thursday at the Montego Freeport Cruise Ship Terminal, its home since 1993.

With a $2-million budget, a quarter of which is in the form of sponsorship, the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, organisers of Western Expo 2000, is offering 120 booths to local and foreign exhibitors, the same number it made available at the last exposition.

Up to Monday, only 100 of those had been sold, and of the remainder, Pauline Reid, vice- president of the chamber and Expo 2000 chairman, expects sales for only 10 more by opening time.

The amount of booth space available is limited by the size of the venue, which remains the largest exhibition area that Montego Bay has to offer. The Half Moon Conference Centre, Rose Hall, presents an alternative, but while it would offer more comfort than the hot and stifling cruise terminal, it would also mean a cut in booth space as the Rose Hall facility is smaller, Miss Reid says.

Western Expo will retain its usual format of booth-judging during the first day, and throwing the gates open to patrons in the ensuing three days, from Friday to Sunday. The official opening is scheduled for Friday, with Earl Bacchus, a Trinidadian and executive director of Caribbean Development Export Agency, as the guest speaker.

Bacchus, an expert on the Common External Tariff and the Rules of Origin which determine duty-free trade of agricultural and manufactured goods within CARICOM, will address the issue of "The Challenges Facing Exporters -- the Role of Caribbean Exporters".

For the first time, Western Expo 2000 will have participation from Guyana, which will be showing mainly leather goods, and from Africa, specifically Zimbabwe and Nigeria, which will be showing craft, fabric and garments.

Trinidad and Cuba, which have been regular exhibitors, as well as Peru, have all indicated interest but say they are "not too sure" they can make it this year, said Miss Reid.

Representatives of Lisafa Manufacturers and Dezign Centre, both garment-makers from Harare, are already here but up to yesterday their goods had not arrived at the wharf, raising concerns that their goods may not make it in time for the exhibition.

Elizabeth Magaya, managing director of Lisafa, says it is her second time in Jamaica, having put on a display at the G-15 International Trade Show in February 1999, where she drummed up good business.

It was partly the competition from the G-15 as well as the unavailability of the cruise terminal at one stage that went into the decision to shelve Western Expo last year.

Ms. Magaya's participation in Expo 2000, she told The Gleaner, is to cement the business linkages made in February 1999, and to secure distributors for her made-to- order garments. Lisafa, which has also shown its products widely in the United States, United Kingdom and Africa, does, on average, 2,000 pieces per month, with prices ranging from US$60 to US$100 for assembled garments.

The Jamaican participants at Expo 2000 will run the usual gamut of manufacturing, financial and other services, air transport, information technology, agriculture and tourism companies, with new interest coming from the hotel sector.

Luxury properties Half Moon, and its new neighbour, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Rose Hall, are among the first-time participants.

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