Banco Davivienda once again extends its hand to San Andrés and has just announced a support program for the island and its inhabitants, through which it will not only provide financing under special conditions, but also building a supportive ecosystem supported by technology and innovation. Javier Suárez Esparragoza, president of the entity, said that the final purpose is to turn San Andrés into an island without cash.
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What is the support you are giving to San Andrés?
It is an initiative that has a credit component, but also innovation. Beyond credit, what we are building is a supportive ecosystem, to see how we bring the benefits of technology, digital, to the island to make life easier for its inhabitants and for the miles of tourists who visit it permanently.
What does that mean…
Javier Suárez Esparragoza assumed the presidency of Banco Davivienda at the beginning of 2022.
Time / Courteous
For example, the tourist card that is needed to enter the island can be bought digitally, today it is still a traditional process. There we are working to return it to digital. We are seeing how the means of transport on the island, among which are taxis, boats, pontoons or the mules that are rented to go around the island, can also be paid very easily with the digital platforms that we have at the service of all Colombians, not only bank clients but all people, including foreigners.
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How to integrate other sectors?
We are working on it, so that small businesses, both formal and informal, the person who does the braids on the beach, can receive payments through the interoperable QR and other electronic mechanisms. So, we bring those technologies to the island to create that ecosystem and make everything flow much easier.
Is this the result of the pilot you did a few years ago in a municipality in Antioquia?
Yes, eight years later, technological advances and digital platforms are enormous. We feel that this, which at the time was a test, can now be returned to a standard. In fact, we have been doing it with market places, we have close to 110 throughout the country that work without cash, we want to prove in practice that this model works. The island seems to us to be a fantastic experiment because due to its condition it allows us to carry out the complete test. We believe that what we are going to learn with this solidarity concept, plus digital issues, will help us to replicate it in the rest of the country. That is our great expectation; without a doubt, we want to arrive on the island without cash, neither more nor less.
You received support for the island with credit…
Yes, it is a special initiative under the mechanism of associative groups; for example, taxi drivers, people who make tourist packages or those who work on the beach, among others, so that among them there is a collective awareness that paying credit is worth it. And servicing the credits implies that if the group has a good payment behavior, the interest rate falls for everyone. Thus, we reach rates that start at 24 percent and we believe that this is a positive effect, not only for the cost of the loan, but also for building the social fabric of responsibility for the payment of obligations. It is a job that we have been doing with the Ministry of Commerce and the government of the island.
Minimize the use of cash in Colombia, one of the purposes of the banks and the Government.
Andrea Moreno. TIME
What is the goal there?
We are talking about lines of credit that can go up to 15,000 million pesos, which come to support the entire island that must improve productivity, quality of the services provided there and that ultimately results in a greater flow of tourists.
The plan also has an environmental part…
We have an initiative related to energy efficiency to lower energy costs on the island by financing solar panels, which we also believe can have a very important impact. And we have another plan that we love, as it appeals to the responsibility of those of us who visit the island and leave our carbon footprint. It is an initiative with which the tourist, when he returns to his destination, has the opportunity to offset that carbon footprint with a contribution, whose resources are used to support environmental sustainability issues in San Andrés.
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