National Export Awareness Week 2020: Day #3 Highlights

Tutorial from RVO
On the third day of the National Export Awareness Week 2020, participants received a hands-on tutorial from the RVO (Rijksdienst Voor Ondernemend Nederland, which translates to the Government Department for the Enterprising Netherlands) on how to prepare their talents for export. Furthermore, the RVO presented insights on available tools and training/coaching programs.

The main takeaways from this tutorial:

• It is of importance for individuals and firms to develop and “package” their talent and knowledge to tap into opportunities in the global market, even in a post-COVID-19 world. 
• The services sector is more likely to rebound faster from the economic downturn and offer, even in the middle of the crisis, an indication of areas that are growing such as the digital economy, health services, training, and knowledge products.
• RVO informed on the different instruments available to Curaçao’s SMEs to export and access new international markets, among them: vouchers for export coaching, support for trade missions 

Rebuilding the economy
Furthermore, several steps were outlined for building long term financial-economic resilience in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) post-COVID-19. These were: 

1. Start the process by identifying the economic challenges. These challenges indicate the consequences for SIDS but they are also the way towards resilience. 
2. SIDS should recognize that there are multiple sources for an economic crisis. 
3. SIDS should define what resilience should look like in terms of public policy rollout, loss prevention and limitation capacity, and reconstruction and recovery capacity.
4. SIDS should build operationally effective and accountable government institutions that create enough public value to enjoy long-term public and political support. 
5. SIDS should design alternative scenarios or possible futures and model (project) their financial-economic and social impact using internal or external foresight capabilities. 
6. SIDS should identify specific financial-economic policy execution and collaboration measures to build long-term financial-economic resilience (this is a key element). 
7. SIDS should be mindful that there is no ‘one size’ that fits all, some policies simply don’t work for every SIDS, and therefore these policies and measures should be different for each SIDS where necessary. 
8. SIDS should be consistent, focused, and determined in their execution of long-term programs of action to create a robust economy and a resilient society.

Creating a circular economy will be key
Moreover, to diversify their economies they must also implement concrete initiatives that build island resilience and circular economy through locally appropriate solutions, particularly at the water-energy-food nexus. 

Among the emerging themes during this dialogue were: 

• Importance of sustainable tourism 
• Prioritize local food systems and agriculture 
• Green workforce development, education and training 
• Invest in community-based culturally driven solutions 
• Integrate climate change resilience and sustainability into recovery 
• Bridge the equity gap, including social services, cost of living, unemployment and digital inclusion 
• Support near and long-term public health, including immediate COVID-19 testing, screening and response 
• Balance need to reopen the economy with health and safety 

Innovative COVID-19 related solutions
During this day innovative and technology-driven entrepreneurs also showcased their COVID-19 related solutions.

Bric
Bric is a modular software framework that offers a variety of building blocks to digitize and automate an organization’s processes. The Bric application was configured within a couple of days to handle the thousands of applications regarding the ‘Noodfonds/ Fondo di Sosten’ (Emergency Fund) while simultaneously offering real-time statistics to the Ministry of Economic Development and other stakeholders. This software framework is the brainchild of Profound and Caag Software. 

CX Pay 2 Fund
With the aim of assisting all the efforts of those who care and go the extra mile for fellow citizens, a new local crowdfunding platform (www.cxpay2fund.me) was launched to help all those people who care about good causes and want to support positive crowdfunding campaigns. This initiative essentially takes away the need for international crowdfunding platforms in which donations go to foreign accounts.

CHIP
A new mobile payment app is now in BETA stage and will be ready to launch in the near future for the Curaçao market. The mobile payment app or digital (e-)wallet will facilitate peer-to-peer and peer-to- merchant transactions. With funds available in the digital wallet, the user can search for other users by phone number (if in their contacts) or scan a QR code directly from another user’s app to make a payment.