The first “Yu Di Korsow (YDK) Diaspora for Business Summit” virtual event was organized by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Government of Curaçao from November 30 through December 2, 2020. The summit was planned in the context of the National Export Strategy Curaçao developed by the mentioned Ministry.

On November 30 one of the “topics” discussed was “Rebuilding Curacao’s International Financial Services Sector”.  The session consisted of approximately 45 minutes of presentations followed by 45 minutes of Q&A and was moderated by Mrs. Priscilla Lotman, CEO and Founder of Frontshore, based in Curaçao.

Presenters/Panel Members were:

• Mrs. Nacha de Jesus, Managing Director of Intertrust Curaçao and President of CIFA ( Curaçao International Financial Services Association), based in Willemstad, Curaçao;
• Mr. Oz Eleonora, CEO, and Co-Founder of Zinica Group, based out of Los Angeles, U.S.A;
• Mr. Olivier Rikken, CEO and Co-Founder of Ledger Leopard, based out of Amsterdam, the Netherlands;
• Mr. René Römer, Senior Commercial Advisor DCSX, based in Willemstad, Curaçao;
• Ms. Loreanni Areazza, Manager PWC Audit, and Assurance, based out of Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Each of these “born in Curacao” presenters and /or panel members gave a brief narrative of their experience having worked or still working from outside of the Island.

Questions and discussion during the Q and A concentrated around :

1. What are the concrete things our diaspora can do in solving some challenges around increasing the export of financial services by Curaçao?
2. What are we seeking from our diaspora to bring to the island (themselves, others, or purely ideas and concepts? -what is a win-win for them and Curaçao? -How will we facilitate this?
3. How do we see the future of work, and within that, how can the diaspora be part of working with Curaçao?
4. The covid 19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of the workforce – what opportunities do you see within this for our diaspora with regards to Curaçao.
5. What are the pro’s of doing business with Curaçao?
6. What needs to happen to foster a capital market wherein both local and international investors can participate?
7. How can the diaspora leverage being a diaspora of Curaçao?
8. What prompted you to either move back to Curaçao or to make it a priority to work with Curaçao? What added value did you see?

Let us finish with the positive note that very soon an initiative will start to set up a YDK Diaspora d-base that will be activated and make productive for the Curaçao economy.

More details about the session can be seen in the below video: