Complementary currencies to promote local trade
The administrations are facing an increasingly worrying economic landscape: in their territory half of the employed workforce (50.5% in the statistical average of the Ministry of Labour) earns their living working as a freelancer or in a small company, which can also be a shop. A very important part of the aforementioned sources of wealth are at imminent risk of closure, with the chain repercussions that each closure entails for the municipality.
The lack of resources can be resolved by complementary monetary instruments that European law allows and the European Commission has even subsidised.
Precisely for these circumstances, local complementary currencies and commercial credit circuits were created, from which we have cases of recognized success, such as the Swiss WIR and the Italian Sardex, the Grama of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, among others. Complementary currencies have long been tried and are known to serve to resolve economic and social exclusion at the level of individuals, self-employed people and small businesses.
NOVACT, the managing entity of the REC (Barcelona) and La Rosa (Sant Feliu de Llobregat) currencies, which has nearly 10 years of experience with the development of monetary projects and Qbit Artifacts, an entity that provides technological services for currencies, offer technical and social solutions to strengthen trade and local services in municipalities that want to promote a strategy for local socio-economic development, responsible consumption and proximity and the reinforcement of the associative and social fabric. Specifically, NOVACT and Qbit can offer:
1. Feasibility study and roadmap for the design and implementation of a local currency
2. Provide, maintain and manage a customized technology platform at a graphical level based on a mobile application and a control panel
3. Support for drawing up an operating regulation
4. Canalyze public funds in local currency and follow up and justify them (experience is available in the channelling of social grants, discounts on consumption and partial payments of subsidies to entities).
5. Provide a user support service
6. Advise and support trade through training, awareness-raising, promotion and loyalty actions
7. Analysis of economic and social impacts ( qualitative and quantitative evaluation)
+ Social viability of public investment
+ High economic and social impact
+ Increase of local public expenditure multiplier
+ Greater municipal income (taxes, taxes, etc.)
+ Reduction of the risk of closure of local businesses.
+ Digitization of local commerce and local services
+ Increase of the bond and loyalty of customers with local commerce
+ It establishes a wide network of economic and social relations between citizens, local commerce, local entities and public administration.
+ The managing entity takes over the management of the payment system, accounting for the local administration (the entity that owns the complementary currency)
