HCMCity (VNS/VNA) - Although the collective economy in Ho Chi MinhCity has gained positive results, limitations still exist, districtofficials and cooperative leaders have said.

Accordingto the HCM City Cooperative Alliance, the number of cooperatives has increasedconsiderably and their quality has improved over the past fiveyears. The number of cooperatives rose from 69 in 2015 to 112 thisyear, with a total of 2,551 members.

Cooperatives,particularly agricultural ones, focus on supporting household economiesby providing services or jobs for members.

CuChi district has the highest number of agricultural cooperatives, with 38 outof a total 50 operating in the district.

Inthe first half of the year, despite COVID-19, agricultural cooperatives’revenue was estimated at 80 billion VND (3.45 million USD), andthe average monthly income was more than 5 million VND (216 USD)per person.

LeDinh Duc, Vice Chairman of the Cu Chi District People's Committee, said theseachievements were thanks to agricultural cooperatives enhancing linkageswith commercial cooperatives and supermarket chains to ensure stable outletsfor products produced by members. Many products have also been exported, hesaid.

Forinstance, the Saigon Aquarium Cooperative is a major provider of babyornamental fish and breeding techniques. It buys all ornamentalfish from breeders to sell in the domestic market or for export, creatingjobs for about 200 households.

Toexploit the potential of the island district of Can Gio, Truong Tien Trien, ViceChairman of the People's Committee of Can Gio district, said adistrict-based shrimp cooperative and the Centre for Hi-tech AgriculturalResearch and Development have implemented an experimental super-intensiveshrimp farming model to produce safe and high-nutritional shrimp products.

This hashelped to satisfy strict quality standards set by fastidious markets suchas the US, EU, and Japan, he said.

Despitepositive results, the development of cooperatives has not mettheir potential, Duc said.

Mostcooperatives are small with limited funds, lack business strategies, have poormanagement compared with other economic sectors, and are disadvantaged in anintegrated economy.

Thecapacity and skills of management staff in the cooperatives are limited, makingit difficult to meet demand in the market economy.

Toboost the development of the collective economy, the city Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development has set up a preferential credit policyto encourage cooperatives to invest in cultivating or breeding high-valueplants or animals.

Theaverage loan for a qualified project increased from 269 million VND in the2011-2015 period to 533 million VND in the 2016-2020 period.

“Lackof investment capital for production and business activities is a major barrierto the development of cooperatives,” Duc said. "With their smallscale, they find it hard to get loans from credit institutions since theydon’t have assets to mortgage."

Hesuggested that the Government promote administrative reform, shorten thetime needed to implement procedures related to licensing and tax policy,and simplify procedures for supporting cooperatives in borrowing capital, amongothers.

Arepresentative of Binh Chanh district said the HCM City CooperativeAlliance should continue to help cooperativestrain personnel and regularly hold professional training courseson economic management, finance and accounting, market research, and projectmanagement.

Inaddition, leaders of districts suggested that the Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development use database management software tofacilitate management and investigation of cooperatives in the agriculturalsector.

Toimprove the efficiency of the collective economic model, in the 2021-2030period the city will focus on developing a new-style cooperativemodel. It also targets setting up 300 cooperatives and five unions of cooperatives,according to the city People's Committee said.

Thesector is expected to achieve annual growth of 7 percent, accounting for 0.6 percentof the city’s economy, and create 30,000 jobs each year.

Thecity also seeks to raise the ratio of cooperative leaders with collegeand university degrees to 60 percent.

Toachieve these targets, the city will implement a number of measures such asincreasing the capital of the City Cooperative Member Support Fund to 2trillion VND (86.4 million USD) by 2030.

Itwill also continue to connect credit organisations and cooperatives, providetraining to cooperative managers, and promote their products and improve their technologies./.