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locAl Wednesday 20 May 2020
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Aruba Tourism Authority (A.T.A.), health minister and department of public health introduce:

Mandatory hygienic and preparation seal: Health & Happiness Code

ORANJESTAD – A.T.A. in collaboration with the public the preparation of the re-opening phase of our border
health department, the health minister and stakeholders Aruba needs to evolve as tourist destination in order to
in the industry have developed the ‘Aruba Health & Hap- welcome and serve our guests and local community.
piness Code (HH Code)’. The protocol and measures included in the code take
the different aspects of a visitor into consideration. This
The main objective of the HH Code is to put protocols, means that all points of contact are drawn up.
guidelines and measures in place to ensure the safest,
cleanest and healthiest path forward for our local com- More about the Health & Happiness Code will follow
munity and visitors. The island and the world are adapt- soon in our next editions. q
ing fast to what is called ‘the new normal’ and as part of

The “New Normal”: Small Island Innovations Post Corona

ORANJESTAD — Small islands such as Aruba com-
monly face acute development challenges such as;
small population size, limited opportunities to diversi-
fy their economies, inability to achieve economies of
scale in production, and weak institutional capacity.
The unprecedented COVID-19 virus has drastically
affected the livelihood of many families and busi-
nesses on the island, resulting in many people won-
dering how we are going to pick up the pieces again
and overcome, while saluting the “new normal”.

Aruba is known for being a resilient island and com-
munity, but this time it is going to require more than
good will, hopes, and dreams to restore the economy
and to ensure employment again for people. Many
discussions have been occurring on the big need
for economic diversification and the use of innova- To achieve this, policies need to address oping states would be best served focus-
tion to accomplish that. High dependency on tour- the specific features of innovation in de- ing on areas which allow them to have a
ism has devastated the island greatly this time and veloping countries, such as; the weight competitive edge, and in sectors (econo-
even though COVID-19 has impacted the world, we of traditional sectors in the economy, the mies) which will help to address some of
should work towards building a less vulnerable com- importance of incremental and adaptive their more urgent challenges (Richardson,
munity going forward. innovation, the need to identify, acquire 2019).
and adapt foreign innovations, the partic-
ular role of foreign direct investment (FDI), The Four STI Friendly Economies
Globally, Science, Tech- tegrated into national de- the limited access of firms to skilled workers 1. Agriculture
nology and Innovation velopment strategies and
(STI) are known key drivers combined with institutional and to capital, weak technology-related Recently, a major area of focus has been
infrastructure, and finally, the inadequate on the agricultural sector, which remains a
of economic and social and organizational chang-
development. The experi- es) can help raise produc- intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes growth industry for small island states de-
(UNCTAD, 2020). STI should be viewed as spite competition from larger countries in
ence of successful devel- tivity, improve firm com-
oping countries shows that petitiveness, support faster a complement to already existing eco- the region.
nomic and environmental activities, rather
STI policies (that are well in- growth and create jobs.
than a substitute, and small island devel- Continued on Page 32