Business expo opens at City Centre
The trade show, highlighting the products of Belizean manufacturers, had to be postponed due to Hurricane Keith, but it resurfaced this morning in Belize City with a strong measure of local pride.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The first day of BELPRO CONEX 2000 got off to a slow start, but organizers of the Belizean Producers Convention and Exhibition are optimistic that over the next two days things will pick up at the City Centre. The event is a first of its kind organized by the Belize Business Bureau.
Merilyn Young, Organizer, BELPRO CONEX 2000
“The whole concept is to sensitize Belizeans as to what we are producing here in goods and services. We live here we hear of certain things that we produce, but we don’t really know the process and exactly what is produced here.”
The exhibition is based on the ?Buy Belize? campaign and there were many local products available.
Stephen Craig, Manager, Hill Top Farm Winery
“When I first got the farm, I planted the fruit trees to say that will help to maintain the farm. But it couldn’t and I wanted to know what to do with all this fruit and a little old lady
came to me one day and said, son make some wine out of this fruit and that’s how I got into wine.”
Dawn Sampson, Public Relations Officer, BEL
“Basically what we are trying to do is educate the public. Most of the people that will be passing through here are students, so what we have on display here is a layout of the Power One, Two and Three projects and that is basically showing that ninety percent of the country has electricity and that is pretty good. There is an ongoing Power Three project that we are working on right now.?
?What we are also trying to do is to get feedback from the public in terms of how they feel about the services that BEL offers.”
David Magana, Manager, Magana’s Art Gallery
“It’s a group work and the group name is the Xunantunich Organisation, which the objective is to preserve the Mayan culture and to develop projects for women. One of the major projects is the pottery production as you can see.”
Young says they plan to make the exhibition an annual event.
BELPRO CONEX 2000 is more than just a collection of exhibits. Seminars are also being held on the grounds of the City Centre covering topics such as preparing a business plan, marketing a product, product development and food safety.
