But now, after years of cajoling, brainstorming, road shows and quiet persuasion, the project is now getting into final shape. The various stakeholders now agree that the rubber industry badly needs such a revolutionary project to save it from the crisis it’s facing today.
We are talking about the novel Rubber Eco Project (REP) headed by Patrick Hays and his team. Hays, who played a key role in the whole project, is happy at the outcome. They have delegated the job now to the IRSG to put the final pieces together and come out with a viable, credible and effective project to meet the challenges facing the NR industry.
The original idea of Rubber Eco Project was mooted at the IAP meeting of the IRSG in December 2003 by a few veterans in the rubber community. The inspiration was the realisation that the proportion of NR in the global elastomer usage should be preserved in the social and environmental interest of planet earth.
The project envisages restoring confidence among all stakeholders in the rubber industry by uniting them around three key objectives of REP, namely:
• Fully realize the social and environmental benefits of NR
• Promote orderly growth of the NR industry to respond to the projected market needs
• Encourage continuous production and consumption of NR under terms favourable to both producers and the consumers
Hays, who was the former managing director of SMPT (Michelin) Singapore and chairman of the Singapore Commodity Exchange, while presenting the final report of the Task Force at the IRSG World Rubber Summit at Kuala Lumpur, recently expressed confidence that IRSG will give concrete shape to the project in the forthcoming Assembly of IRSG in Thailand in 2007.
