00:00The Scrap Iron Dealers Association has asked the new trade minister for a regulatory body for their industry.
00:07It's one of the recommendations submitted to Minister Kamab Maharaj during their first meeting with him.
00:13President of the association Alan Ferguson says it's been five years since the scrap iron industry was closed and then allowed to reopen on a limited scale.
00:24Ferguson laments that the industry is yet to recover and be up and running in full capacity again.
00:31Ferguson says the association sent a letter to the trade minister after their meeting with some recommendations that they believe can help improve the industry and by extension the country's economy.
00:43However, they tell us they're yet to get a response.
00:47What I am saying is that this industry worldwide is a billion dollars industry.
00:53We, we have a recommendation that we could employ thousands of people, you know.
00:59Marlon, thousands of people we could employ, yeah.
01:02We, we, we, we ask for a recommendation that we go into, um, recycle tire, paper, plastic, even old food that you train away, old oil that you don't want in your kitchen, train away.
01:15We recommend that we do all of that to increase the employment of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:20Marlon Ferguson says the waiting game is starting to take a toll on persons working within the industry.
01:29Marlon, let me tell you something.
01:31People can go out and, you see the bandmen, they can go out and work, they're building the strategy.
01:36Because why?
01:36Because when they go out and work and come back into a yard, they gain a 700, when they're going to get a 15 or a 2,000, and you have to pay van, you have to pay for your van, you have to pay your men.
01:47All these things, all these things is taking place and it, it, it, it frustrates the whole industry.
01:53When everybody gets frustrated, they're frustrating me too.
Be the first to comment