HCM City (VNA) - HCM City has prepared plansto develop 300 cooperatives and five cooperative alliances in the 2021-2030period, thus reaching the targeted growth of 7 percent in the cooperativeeconomic sector.

Under a collective economic development strategyreleased recently by the city People’s Committee, the sector is expected tocontribute 0.6 percent to the city’s total GDP.

With policies to encourage the expansion of cooperatives,the sector expects to attract an additional 30,000 workhands.

The city will maintain and enhance the quality ofeffective agricultural cooperatives and gradually improve those that are ineffective,while encouraging all cooperatives to apply high technology.

At the same time, the city will continue to build themodel of advanced and modern agricultural cooperatives in five districts, and willalso work to ensure all new-style rural communes have cooperatives andproduction-sales links.

In the industry and handicraft sectors, the city willdevelop operating cooperatives while associating the expansion of cooperativeswith industry encouragement programmes to support cooperatives and businessesalike.

In the area of trade-services, HCM City will continueto reinforce established cooperatives while broadening the retail network anddeveloping retail cooperatives and forming links among trade andagriculture-agricultural service cooperatives. It will also call for smalltraders in markets to join cooperatives.

In transport and loading activities, the city willwork to increase the scale and reduce the number of transport cooperatives,with priority given to those owning new vehicles using environmentally-friendlyfuel.

HCM City will also create the conditions necessary forcooperatives to operate in public transport.

The city will design policies to support the formationof environmental sanitation cooperatives, with a target of all districts havingsuch cooperatives by 2030.

Figures from the city show it currently has more than610 cooperatives, 526 of which operate in trade-services, industry-handicraft,credit, transport, agriculture, and environmental sanitation.

The number has increased over the years. About 50 newcooperatives have been set up each year since 2016, involving more than 58,600people. The scale and connectivity of cooperatives have also been on therise./.