THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

egional economic development. It is also an important sign that
some significant governmental authorities are starting to take
complementary currencies seriously. Two case studies will be
presented briefly here: an initiative by the European Commission and
perhaps the most impressive one of all by the Japanese Ministry of
International Trade and Industry (MITI).
Europe
The European Commission (DG V) has been co-financing four pilot
regional projects, jointly defined as the 'Barataria' projects (described
in the website www.barataria.org). The four prototypes were
purposely chosen to be of a different nature from each other. They
are:
• the Scottish SOCS (www.socsystem.org.uk)
• the ROMA project in the Connaught area, Ireland
• Amstelnet in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (email info
amstelnet.nl)
• : and '3er Sector' project organised by the non-profit La Kalle in the
Vallecas district of Madrid, Spain.
The first two were developed in the countryside, while the two
latter are for city dwellers. The Irish system is a paper scrip currency,
while the three others are purely electronic money. In all cases, the
normal taxes are due on local currency transactions, including Value
Added Taxes (VAT). A few words about each give a flavour of the
range of these applications.
1. (The Scottish experiment is an adaptation of the WIR precedent
adapted for regional development purposes. It was launched by Ruth
Anderson of the Scottish Rural Forum in 1997. Membership to the
SOCSystem is restricted to organisations, such as businesses,
governmental agencies and non-profit organisations. Each member