00:00Maritime Capital is an investment and wealth generation organisation in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:07Chief Executive Officer Varun Maharaj tells TV6,
00:11it is crucial to find a remedy to the ongoing shortage.
00:16Foreign exchange and the ability to access forex is critical to Trinidad and Tobago,
00:24how it goes forward in terms of its whole economy and it impacts on wealth creation.
00:32So that is really the purpose of this seminar.
00:36It's an urgent need. We have heard solutions spoken about,
00:41and we just want to bring it to the fore and come up with some practical ways
00:48that the foreign exchange crisis, it's a national crisis, can be addressed in Trinidad.
00:55Meanwhile, President of the Chagones Chamber of Industry and Commerce,
00:59Baldas Maharaj, says businesses continue to suffer.
01:04He says there is need for a more transparent foreign exchange distribution process.
01:10I'm aware that the Minister of Finance met with some of the chambers.
01:14We were not included, unfortunately.
01:17But meeting with the chambers, let's just hope it's not a pacification project
01:21to the extent that we just stay quiet for a little while and then the problem continues.
01:27We have seen no change whatsoever from last year to now.
01:32Hence the reason why Maritime Capital has decided to meet with the chambers as well
01:37to see if we can bring it to the forefront.
01:40The chamber president further notes the burden of high expenses on business operators.
01:46He tells us the impact on economy and enterprise is heavy.
01:51In some cases, loss of profits.
01:55Additionally, there is competitive advantage loss because in Trinidad we export to the Caribbean as well.
02:05If our prices are higher, it's quite difficult to be competitive to export within CARICOM.
02:13Obviously that leads to stagnation of the business in itself.
02:18At the chamber meeting which took place today, the panel sought to give advice
02:23on short, medium and long-term levers available to private sector to unlock the forex blockages.
02:30Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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