Georgetown: Preparations are moving apace for the July 5-7, Ministry of Housing and Water’s fourth International Building and Construction Exposition that promises to bring together a range of local and foreign building and construction materials, models of houses and other home related services.The event which will be held under the theme, “Consolidating Partnerships for Sustainable Development”is geared to fulfill the expectations of thousands of people, and simultaneously highlight the investment and building opportunities available for the public, not only in the building and construction sector, but home furnishing, interior decoration and educational programmes aimed at sensitising the public on how to keep bees and other harmful insects away from their homes.
The expo to be staged at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, will feature exhibits from hardware and electrical suppliers, contractors, construction and engineering companies, sawmillers and lumber dealers, housing developers and real estate agencies, furniture manufacturers and suppliers, and suppliers of paints and household items.
Speaking at a press conference at the National Stadium Saturday, Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali said that the event is a forum that is educational, creates business opportunities and expands trade, and one that brings the private sector, the public and the Government closer together in collaborating towards meeting the needs of the people.
This year there are three full scale models of homes that will be built so that persons can have a firsthand view of homes that they can own.
There are also 28 corporate sponsors, 103 exhibition booth spaces that are already taken up and 10 foreign companies, from countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, the United States, China, India and Malaysia.
The centerpiece for the event will be the “Silica city”, which will take residential housing to higher grounds.
Minister Ali said that when the ministry announced this initiative there was skepticism about how many persons will buy into it, nevertheless, the public response has been enormous.
The area that is earmarked for this initiative is Kuru Kururu, Linden-Soesdyke Highway, on an area covering 27, 000 acres. and the initial development will to be around 500 acres.
The Housing Minister reported that over the past few weeks the ministry has been seeing a “mad rush” of persons who applied for house lots requesting a transfer from being allocated land alone to either the turn key home, which is $4.9M, the young professional’s homes which are being developed at $8M, and a third level for high income professionals for about $19M.
“So we are developing models to cater for every segment of the market from $4.9M to $19M inclusive of land and house,” he said.
The Ministry has also established partnerships with hardware companies and has been working out an arrangement with Courts in terms of having home furnishing available to persons.
Minister Ali added that the Ministry’s approach is not only to make housing more available, but to ensure home ownership and family development.
“We are moving from just the allocation of lands, to the provision of homes and furnishings, and to ensure we use the old economic model of economies of scale and demand supplies to bring the cost down and make it more affordable,” Minister explained.
He said that the there has also been a dynamic shift in the private sector focus in terms of having gated and high-end communities available. This, he said, is a result of the changing income levels in the country.
“You have a growing middle class, upper-class and persons wanting different levels of development and these are where the private developers come in,” he said.
Meanwhile Minister Ali expressed gratitude for the continued support of the corporate sponsors of the Building and Construction Exposition, especially Republic Bank, Courts Guyana Inc, Impressions, New Building Society (NBS) and for the first time Sunshine Villa.
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