The Regional Economic Community at a glance
- The CPO – Community of Participation and Ownership – allows citizens, regional investors and local companies to become part-owners of local firms, properties and institutes which are committed to sustainability and long-term viability.
- Sustainability and long-term viability are indispensible key concepts in the design of the CPO. The CPO only acquires full or partial ownership of companies which actively and continuously strive for more ecological, economic and social sustainability. Coaching and reporting ensure the implementation.
- There are CPO shares with and without voting rights, but one legal or natural person can only have one vote at the general meeting. The owners of shares with voting rights share part of the responsibility for the way business is performed in their area.
- The market community encourages both professional market trades and neighbourly help, both of which are remunerated in Groks, the complementary currency of the market community.
- The Grok is a secured user-issued currency – something of value must be given or deposited in order to create Groks. Thus users of the Grok can have well-founded trust that no debt can be defaulted on – if need be, deposited securities will be called in.
- The foremost type of security which can be deposited for a Grok creation facility is shares in the CPO. Any number of CPO shares can be deposited with the market community. For each share deposited the account holder gets a fixed increase of her creation limit. Deposited shares cannot be sold.
- Any local citizens (and firms) can open a Grok account without a creation facility. In this case, they can only spend the Groks which they have first themselves earned within the market community. However, various methods have been foreseen to provide sufficient liquidity of Groks.