"Innovative, inspiring and eye-opening" noted Guyana journalist after visiting a Dongguan-based company

On their third-day tour of Dongguan, six social media influencers from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries visited Sitoy Group on September 9. It's a manufacturer of branded bridge to luxury handbags, small leather goods, and travel goods headquartered in Dongguan and Hong Kong SAR.

Social media influencers from Latin American and Caribbean countries recorded videos of the automotive at Sitoy, located in Dongguan, on September 9, 2024. (Photo: GDToday) 

The international guests visited the production workshop, seeing the whole process of fabrication streamlined and seeking to understand Dongguan's advanced manufacturing advantages. They also stepped into the exhibition area, feeling the charm of Dongguan's clothing fashion industry.

More excitingly, they even joined two live broadcasts for advertising. They grabbed shoes and handbags in front of the camera to assist clothing fashion products in the enterprise to enter the Caribbean market.

After visiting the enterprise, Shaquawn Hamilton Gill, a Journalist from Guyana, noted that he was much honored to have the opportunity to spend some time in the production room seeing how the Chinese people work extremely hard, while also being extremely innovative in their mechanisms to make sure that the country provides the commodities for the whole world.

"China continues to lead the world when it comes to manufacturing when it comes to productivity, and making sure that the commodities that we need in everyday life are produced," he pointed out.

He detailed that a lot of times in the Caribbean, people use bags and sneakers, but he never gets the opportunity to understand how they are made, and where they came from in the first place.

For him, the most interesting thing is the matrix of the cost of production here is much different from what it is in Guyana or in the Caribbean.

Based on his observation, in the Caribbean countries, their highest costs come from utilities. Given a high bill of electricity and soaring energy prices, "it made it difficult for a number of years for LAC countries to really get off the ground when it comes to manufacturing," he added.

On the contrary, the lower costs in China are evident when you look at the makeup of the cost of production.

Mr. Gill finalized lots of lessons for him to learn from perspectives of an economy and policy on how countries in the Caribbean region can reduce the cost of certain inputs in the cost of production to make manufacturing more viable.

As for the live streaming, he confessed that he had never tried that before. It's interesting to see the innovation and to see how Chinese people are able to use the mechanisms and software available to market products.

Also, as a content creator, Mr. Gill noted that there is a wide market for influencers and content creators to play a role for these companies given the shift in marketing.

He then encouraged all of these companies to be pioneers in ensuring that young content creators can use their talents, skills, and abilities to market their products, goods, and services.

Lastly, when asked whether he could use three words to conclude the tour of the company, he blurted out "innovative" and "inspiring," then pondered a moment saying "eye-opening."

According to him, the Caribbean has been using a number of mechanisms before, but they have not been as innovative as those that the region has seen today, particularly in relation to live-streaming marketing.

For him, the huge industry really begs the question: why can't that happen in the Caribbean, too?

"So it's something for us to look at and to see how we can be able to explore and implement that into our everyday lives in the Caribbean," he added.

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