Nghe An collective economy develops diversely

(Baonghean)The 5th Conference of the Party Central Committee (9th tenure) issued Resolution No. 13/NQ.T.u on “Continuing to innovate, develop and improve the efficiency of the collective economy”. After 10 years of implementing the Resolution, the collective economy in Nghe An has developed strongly, creating jobs, increasing income, reducing poverty and ensuring social security.

As of early 2012, Nghe An had 2,635 cooperatives, an increase of 933 compared to 2002; 830 cooperative unions, cooperatives, an increase of 312 cooperatives compared to 2002. With more than 650,000 cooperative members, cooperative unions, of which 280,000 are regular workers in various types of cooperatives. Cooperatives in Nghe An operate in a diverse range of activities, mainly focusing on the fields of small-scale industry, trade and services, agricultural services, fishing and aquatic products services with many industries of processing, consuming post-harvest agricultural products, supplying fishing materials, producing rattan and bamboo, weaving brocade, processing seafood and other small-scale industries.



Cooperative groups for offshore fishing bring high efficiency in seafood exploitation in coastal localities. Photo: Xuan Nhuong.

Based on practical requirements, some forms of cooperation have developed strongly such as: Solidarity groups, association groups between offshore fishing vessels in coastal districts (by the end of 2011, Nghe An province had nearly 30 cooperative groups sponsored by the Fisheries Association and Farmers' Association at all levels). Small-scale handicraft cooperative groups - craft villages cooperate in vocational training, supply of raw materials and export consumption of products (regularly there are about 100 cooperative groups purchasing and processing peanuts for export, about 150 cooperative groups serving the production of rattan and bamboo weaving and brocade weaving).

The activities of agricultural cooperatives and groups in the province are currently relatively stable. Some agricultural cooperatives have expanded their services to include environmental sanitation, market management, clean vegetable production, shrimp feed supply, and new rice seed production services. Agricultural cooperatives in coastal areas have developed additional industries such as bamboo and rattan weaving, and raw material supply for craft villages.

Statistics by the end of 2011 of 440 agricultural cooperatives with service activities include: 419 cooperatives with irrigation services (accounting for 95%); 417 cooperatives with services providing materials and plant varieties (accounting for 94%); 145 cooperatives with plant protection services (accounting for 33%); 269 cooperatives with electricity services (accounting for 61%); 69 cooperatives with veterinary services (accounting for 16%); 58 cooperatives with internal credit services (accounting for 13%); 57 cooperatives with general production services (accounting for 13%). Thus, cooperatives with 5 or more general service stages account for about 40%, the number of cooperatives that exist with all 9 service stages as chartered and registered for business is very small.

Non-agricultural cooperatives include: Grassroots Credit Funds, Electricity Cooperatives, Industrial - Handicraft Cooperatives, Fishery Cooperatives, Trade and Service Cooperatives, Basic Construction and Boat Building Cooperatives. The production and business activities of non-agricultural cooperatives are quite dynamic with many diverse forms of production, business and service, the main products of cooperatives include: Superfine stone powder, fish sauce processing, construction materials, bamboo and rattan weaving, brocade weaving... In the process of converting industries and competing for integration, non-agricultural cooperatives are stable, standing firm, many cooperatives are developing well.

However, a few cooperatives still face difficulties due to lack of capital or changes in mechanisms, especially electricity cooperatives, when the state increases electricity prices, applies step-by-step electricity prices, transfers low-voltage power grids, leading to the cooperatives having to reduce services or dissolve. Or some former handicraft cooperatives of Vinh City cannot change their business lines, members have no jobs, and the cooperative's main activities are renting out locations.

Typical examples of effective operations are non-agricultural cooperatives, typical cooperatives in Vinh City, Cua Lo Town, Tan Ky District, Con Cuong District. In addition to innovating and growing traditional industries, these cooperatives also invest in large-scale production projects such as: Cua tile craft village cooperative (Tan Ky) builds a tunnel brick production project with a capacity of 30 million bricks/year; Quyet Thanh cooperative (Vinh City) invests over 35 billion VND to expand the white stone powder grinding line and build a 7-storey hotel trade center; Song Lam service production cooperative (Cua Lo Town) invests in a ship repair facility, an auto repair workshop, a vocational training center and Lam Giang service restaurant... with a total investment of over 10 billion VND; Thong Nhat embroidery and garment cooperative (Vinh City) forms a joint venture with Ca Vang Company Limited to build a trade and service complex with a total investment of over 15 billion VND; Hai Van Brocade Textile Cooperative (Con Cuong district) expanded its production area and purchased brocade products in Ky Son, Tan Ky, Que Phong, Thanh Chuong districts with product value of billions of VND.

In addition, the model of craft villages and craft villages in the province operating under the form of cooperatives and cooperatives has developed strongly since the Resolution No. 5 of the Central Committee (Term IX) and Resolution No. 06 of the Provincial Party Committee (Term XV). The activities of craft villages and craft villages mainly focus on the production of industrial products, processing of agricultural products, food and seafood, and planting and caring for ornamental plants.

As of 2011, the province has built and recognized 285 craft villages (district level), 111 craft villages at provincial level. The model of craft villages and craft villages in localities in the province has developed with increasingly large scale. Craft villages produce on the scale of household groups, craft villages produce on the scale of villages, hamlets, communes and many places have concentrated production in small industrial parks, concentrated seafood processing zones, and rural craft village clusters. The export value of craft village products reached about 10 million USD. The network of vocational training organizations for farmers serving craft village production is organized in most districts in the province and expanded to Ha Tinh province.

Through the production, business and service activities of cooperative unions, cooperatives, craft villages, Nghe An collective economy has made important contributions to the socio-economic development of the province. The proportion of the economic value of the collective economy in the total product value of the province annually reaches an average of 5 - 7%. If calculating only the production value from handicraft products of cooperatives and craft villages, the proportion of some districts reaches an average of 35 - 40%, some districts reach 45 - 55%. Communes with large-scale handicraft villages reach 60 - 80% (Nghi Thai, Nghi Phong - Nghi Loc), Quynh Nghia (Quynh Luu), Nghia Hoan (Tan Ky). The total production value of the handicraft - craft village and collective economy sectors has a fairly high growth rate, if in 2001, it only reached 651.6 billion VND, by 2006 it reached 2,130 billion VND, in 2011 it reached nearly 3,000 billion VND. In addition, the collective economic sector also has important contributions to the State budget, job creation and contribution to the transformation of the local economic structure.

Collective economy, with cooperatives as its core, plays an important role in social security, strengthening productive forces, and building new production relations in agriculture and rural areas. Currently, effective production and business cooperatives or groups are one of the 19 criteria for building new rural areas.

After 10 years of implementing Resolution 5 of the Central Committee, cooperative types have had many changes in consolidating the organization, improving management capacity, meeting the rights and income of members. After converting operations under the Law on Cooperatives, the finances of cooperatives are healthy and have grown quite well. In 2011, the total asset value of cooperatives reached 936 billion VND (an increase of 148% compared to 2002), total equity capital was 719 billion VND, total mobilized capital was 116 billion VND; total revenue was 975 billion VND, total profit after tax was 195 billion VND; average income in agricultural cooperatives reached 1.7 million VND/month/person, non-agricultural cooperatives 2 million VND/month/person, grassroots credit funds were over 3 million VND/month/person. Through a survey of 49 cooperatives in Vinh City (summarizing the score of the NQT 5) in 2011, it was shown that the average capital of a cooperative was 2.9 billion VND, the average contributed capital of a member was 1.2 million VND, the average revenue was 4.3 billion VND/cooperative, the average after-tax profit was 79 million VND/cooperative, the budget contribution was 99 million VND/cooperative...

The achievements of the collective economic sector of Nghe An over the past years are the result of the persistent efforts of hundreds of thousands of rural workers with low starting points in all aspects. For them, these achievements are very valuable. In the coming time, it is necessary to focus on implementing the new Cooperative Law, consolidating the activities of cooperatives and craft villages, creating favorable conditions for the collective economic sector to develop more deeply and sustainably, in order to strive to successfully implement Resolution 5 of the Central Committee (9th tenure) on "Continuing to innovate, develop and improve the efficiency of the collective economy" to achieve maximum efficiency in the province.

Quynh Lan