Ho Chi Minh City is set to establish 600 new working groups, 75 cooperatives and three unions by 2015 in order to push the annual growth of the collective economy to 10 percent, contributing one percent of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP) and generating 18,000 jobs.

The ambitious plan was revealed by Deputy Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee and head of the Steering Committee for Collective Economy Development Le Manh Ha at a conference in HCM City on October 25. He called for faster progress in the implementation of the Resolution on developing the collective economy by 2020, adopted by the ninth Party Central Committee.

Ha added that the number of new working groups, cooperatives and cooperative unions will hit 1,500, 175 and 10 respectively between 2016 and 2020. They are expected to contribute 1.2 percent of the city’s GDP and create jobs for 50,000 workers.

To realise their goals, local departments and agencies were requested to review the quantity and quality of cooperatives in each sector, and make it easier for them to access production facilities, credit capital, managerial staff and skilled workers.

The State management apparatus on the collective economy will be perfected while the working efficiency of the city cooperative unions will be improved.

HCM City is now home to over 500 cooperatives working across varied areas such as industry, construction, transport and public credit funding. Ten years after implementing the Resolution set at the fifth meeting of the 9 th Party Central Committee, the rate of well-performing cooperatives has jumped from 40 percent to 70 percent.

An outstanding example is the Saigon Union of Trade Cooperatives, which runs a network of Coopmart supermarkets in 30 cities and provinces nationwide.-VNA