An Economic Response

In March of 2020, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, and the Cook Islands Government closed the borders to protect our citizens from a virus that has the potential to cause significant loss of life.

By closing the border, the countries tourism sector, which provides between 60% - 70% of our gross domestic product (GDP), was also closed, and as the global health impacts continued to worsen, the Cook Islands Government realized that this pandemic was going to have impacts longer than just a few months. They set about to develop an economic response to support businesses and its citizens.

We were called on to assist businesses that were financially impacted, and the CINSF Board and Trustee agreed to a reduction in the compulsory contribution rates for those businesses. We were also asked to consider how we could assist the delivery of the Cook Islands Government economic response. Having recently launched our new software Te Roro, for employers to make their monthly declarations, we proposed re-engineering it from receiving declarations and contributions to making approvals for grant and wage subsidy payments all on a digital platform.

The timeframe we were given to launch the service was immediately, and with the support of our developers Transformative, we were able to commence receiving applications online within 7 days, with the first subsidy payments to employers being made just 12 days later. An incredible result and a credit to not only the hard work but smart initiatives when Te Roro was originally developed.

The CINSF has helped to facilitate over $40m in ERP payments to the business community and their employees in 2020.