Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh made thestatement at the 10th Asia Pacific Cooperative Ministers’ Conference, whichopened in Hanoi on April 18.
The enhancement of economic cooperation and designingof collaboration programmes between member cooperative federations, includingVietnam, is a vivid demonstration for the growing cooperative economy, shesaid.
However, the ICA-AP is facing a number ofchallenges in implementing the targets set at its 12th Regional Assembly toobtain sustainable development, eliminate poverty, protect the environment, andensure prosperity for all people by 2030, she noted.
The Vice President urged the ICA-AP to givepriority to structural reform to step up cooperation and improve operationalefficiency of cooperatives, as well as stimulate renovation and narrowdevelopment gaps.
The alliance should forge ahead with regionalintegration and trade and investment collaboration for the sake of all people, whilemaking use of opportunities from the current cooperation mechanisms in theregion such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the FreeTrade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), she said.
She also suggested building qualityinfrastructure and innovative financial mechanisms, and boosting public-privatepartnership.
In the light of digital era, the ICA-AP needsto support cooperation to increase competitiveness, renovation, andparticipation in the global value chain, she said.
The Vice President urged the alliance to takestronger action to implement the initiative on the facilitation of business forcooperatives and startups via establishing cooperatives led by youths andwomen.
Strengthening food security and sustainableagricultural development should be focused in the future, while boosting thetransfer of technology to increase quality and productivity for theagricultural sector, Thinh said.
She called on the ICA-AP to put forthinitiatives to fuel economic growth and integration and confirm its globalposition as a coordinator in multi-layer and multi-lateral economiccooperation.
President of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance(VCA) Vo Kim Cu said Vietnam is home to over 20,000 cooperatives operating invarious fields from agriculture, trade-services and construction toindustry-handicraft, transport, credit and environment.
Attracting over 30 million labourers, thecooperatives form a large socio-economic region which has crucial impact onrural economy, he added.
The Asia-Pacific cooperatives movement’s agendaby 2030 targets 4 million cooperatives with 2 billion members, making up 20percent of the global economy, he noted.
The 10th Asia Pacific Cooperative Ministers’Conference is taking place in Vietnam for the first time from April18-21.-VNA