URUGUAY > C3 : Circuito de Credito Comercial
Our mission: to study and promote C3, alternative money created to sustain the development of SMEs and relocate economy.
Time: 1 month (February 2011)
The local economies are suffering from globalization. Many communities have been paralyzed for years because of economic depressions. The Dutch NGO STRO (Social Trade Organization) aims to help these hard-pressed communities thanks to innovative solutions allowing them to increase their purchasing power through new forms of money and credit. STRO has notably developed a new tool meant to sustain the local economy and the SMEs: the C3, the Circuit of Commercial Credit.
The SMEs are an important source of innovation and employment creation. They are also the main players for sustainable development. Many SMEs are jeopardized in Uruguay 90% of them do not have access to credits, which is yet an essential tool to ensure their development. The C3 is an innovative answer, making it for SMEs easier to access credits. The C3 links different businesses around a software named Cyclos and coordinates exchanges between them, not around conventional money, but around “virtual” money. The goal is not to merely facilitate access to credit but also to create Demand, so that SMEs can find opportunities at a local level. Then, money runs mainly within the local market (instead of running outside), and the “profits” generated by the local SME can thus sustain development of other local partners.
November 20, 2009 may become a historical date in the money systems world as that day the Uruguayan administration officially launched the C3 nationally. A year later, the C3 is on the brink of becoming reality for SMEs and TAOA is proud to work with C3 for a whole month in February 2011.
Action plan
- Testing and beginning the « Social Trade Experts Program » online, and translating it into French
- Developing communication tools
- Developing « Process Docs »
Our contact
Gustavo Zunin, Coordinator of the C3U Project, based in Montevideo.
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