Collective economy, cooperatives forum to return in Q3 hinh anh 1Seedling production in a farming cooperative in Da Lat, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has approved a plan for the organisation of the 2021 forum on collective economy and cooperatives in the third quarter of this year.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is tasked to consult with the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the organisation of the forum, and cooperate with the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) to prepare its contents and programmes.

Attention must be paid to ensuring the effectiveness of the event which should be held when the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control, the PM requested.

The event provides a platform for dialogues between the Government and cooperative businesses and for strengthening partnerships among cooperatives as well as between cooperatives and other business models to seek broader access to markets and technologies.

This year, the forum also aims to review the 10-year enforcement of the 2012 Law on Cooperatives.

Last year’s event took place in December, focusing discussions on measures to develop the collective economy by promoting links among cooperatives and with other business models in the era of the fourth Industrial Revolution.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the collective economy contributed around 4 percent to the country’s GDP.

As of June 2020, there are 22,861 cooperatives in operation in Vietnam, including 13,856 agricultural cooperatives, 1,183 people’s credit funds and 7,822 non-agricultural cooperatives, which altogether attracted six million members.

The annual average revenue of cooperatives was 4.4 billion VND (189,600 USD) in 2018, 5.2 times higher than 2003.  Average profit also increased from 74 million VND in 2003 to 240.5 million VND in 2018.

There were 74 unions of cooperatives, 39 of which were operating in agriculture. The unions of cooperatives attracted 375 member cooperatives and created jobs for 25,200 labours. The unions of cooperatives had average revenue of 994 million VND per year and profit of 148 million VND.

Cooperatives and unions of cooperatives provided jobs for two million labourers.

Besides, there were 101,400 cooperative groups with 1.34 million members./.
VNA