Overview of the national forum on collective economy and cooperatives 2019 (Photo: baodauthau.vn)

Since the Law on Cooperatives was enacted in 2012, Vietnam has proven its cutting edge thinking in using a new-style cooperative model to improve production relations in accordance with the market mechanism, international economic integration, and increasingly fierce competitiveness.

Over the years, the number of cooperatives has increased throughout the country. By the end of last year, Vietnam had nearly 23,000 cooperatives with nearly 6 million members creating more than 1.2 million jobs.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Tri Dung said that the collective economy and cooperatives have contributed greatly to the national economy, generated jobs and stable incomes for households and family members, increased income, reduced poverty, and ensured social security.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung (Photo: baodauthau.vn)

Dung said: “The cooperative economy and cooperatives still face many difficulties, including slow and unstable growth. Several cooperatives haven’t strictly complied with the law and thoroughly understood the nature, principles, and values of cooperatives. Cooperatives’ capacity remains weak. They mainly depend on their own equity and are unable to access loans from credit institutions. The link between cooperatives is weak while the role of the cooperative alliance hasn’t been fully brought into play."

Changes in global trade are creating both opportunities and challenges, requiring more solutions to make Vietnam’s collective economy and cooperatives grow strongly. The solutions should focus on trade promotion, market expansion for Vietnamese farm produce, resource mobilization, human resource development, and incentives on taxes, salaries, and fees.

Luu Thi Chi, Chairwoman of the Thai Binh province Cooperatives Alliance, called on the State and government to reform the policy on land to drive the development of cooperatives.

“We hope the Party and State will have clearer resolutions on the collective economy and more policies to address the problems facing the collective economy. The Vietnam Cooperative Alliance should work closely with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the State Bank of Vietnam, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front to create a spring-board for the cooperative economy and help the collective economy be treated fairly in other economic avenues. Cooperatives should also try their best not to fall behind in the industry 4.0,” said Chi.

The State has implemented 6 policies to support cooperatives in regards to human resource training, trade promotion, application of science and technology, and capital access to facilitate cooperatives to participate in target programs and socio-economic development programs.

Many localities have implemented their own incentives to boost the development of cooperatives. Addressing a recent national forum on the collective economy and cooperatives in Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue highlighted the role of the cooperative economy and urged for favorable conditions for the economy to truly grow.

“Cooperatives have been considered the core in the collective economy. We need to improve the capacity of cooperatives to boost the collective economic sector toward increasing its proportion in the national GDP. We also need to strengthen the State management in the collective economy and international cooperation and pay more attention to social and agricultural insurance. It’s important to reform and improve the effectiveness of the collective economy to increase its position in Vietnam’s socialist-oriented market economy,” said Mr. Hue.