A net house for vegetable production under VietGAP standards of a cooperative in Hoa Phu commune of Hoa Vang district, Da Nang city (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Each cooperativeshould itself improve competitiveness and mobilise synergistic resources, applyadvanced technology as well as improve management effectiveness combined withbranding and marketing.
Deputy Director of the Ministryof Planning and Investment’s (MPI’s) Cooperatives Department Bui Nghi made thestatement during a seminar held by the ministry on August 18 in Hanoi.
The cooperative sector needs to give priority to structural reform as well asstimulate renovation to improve operational efficiency, adapting to currentmarket conditions and the international integration process, he said.
Cooperatives were formed anddeveloped in Vietnam long ago. However, the country’s socio-economic situationhas changed, requiring them to renovate accordingly in order to operate moreeffectively.
According to Nghi, the 2012 Law on Cooperatives facilitated cooperativedevelopment in line with the country’s economic development, associated withthe process of international integration, he said.
They should be restructured and transformed into modern models, expanding thescale of production and developing production toward specialisation andprofessionalism, generating products of high quality and added value, meetingdomestic requirements as well as joining the global value chain, he added.
Foreign experts said Vietnamese cooperatives should also learn frominternational practices, including a number of cooperative development modelsof developed countries such as Canada, the Netherlands and Germany.
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Cooperatives should be built on a voluntary basis, mobilising resources fromeach participant and distributing profits according to agreement reachedbetween participants, they stated.
Vietnam has more than 19,500 cooperatives operating in various fields, fromagriculture, fisheries, forestry, transport, credit and handicrafts. However,only one third are assessed as operating efficiently.
At the seminar, Tran Van Cung, Chairman of the Cooperative Alliance in thesouthern province of An Giang, gave examples of co-operation on rice productionbetween farmers and businesses in the province.
Cooperatives represented farming households, receiving seeds, chemicals andfertilisers from enterprises and then providing them to farming households, hesaid. They received commissions according to agreements reached w𒈔ith farmers.In addition, cooperatives and technical staff supervise and support farmers inthe production process, he said.-VNA
