Vietnam Cooperative Alliance supports Nghe An with 4 production development models

On the morning of May 14, the working delegation of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance led by comrade Nguyen Ngoc Bao - Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, Deputy Head of the Board of Innovation and Development of Cooperative Collective Economy, had a working session with the Board of Innovation and Development of Cooperative Collective Economy of Nghe An province.

Working with the delegation, Nghe An province had comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Steering Committee for Innovation, Economic Development, and Cooperatives of the province; leaders of relevant departments and branches.

Previously, the delegation of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance visited a number of cooperative models producing clean vegetables in Nam Dan and Nghia Dan districts. Photo: Archive

Before the official working session with the province, the delegation of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance conducted a field survey at a number of cooperatives in Nam Dan and Nghia Dan districts to grasp the situation, actual needs and production conditions associated with the value chain.

At the meeting, the Report of the Nghe An Province Cooperative Union said: Regarding agricultural cooperatives, Nghe An has many cooperatives that have linked with businesses and farmers in the production value chain, bringing practical benefits to members. In the first 4 months of 2018, the province had 25 newly established agricultural cooperatives, bringing the total number of cooperatives in the province to 670 cooperatives.

Revenue of agricultural cooperatives in 2017 reached 225 billion VND (an increase of 80 billion VND compared to 2016), regular income of workers reached an average of 30 - 35 million VND/year. Revenue of non-agricultural cooperatives reached 518 billion VND (an increase of 120 billion VND compared to 2016), regular income of workers in cooperatives reached an average of 48 - 55 million VND/worker/year.

Comrade Nguyen Ngoc Bao - Chairman of Vietnam Cooperative Alliance spoke at the meeting. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Regarding the implementation of cooperative support policies, a representative of the Department of Cooperative Development said that there are still many problems and many criteria have not been issued, so access to support policies for cooperatives is still limited.

Cooperatives have difficulty accessing bank loans. The Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development proposed that the Government's capital should be transferred to the Social Policy Bank so that cooperatives can receive support under a special mechanism.

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee received and thanked the delegation for their guidance. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Assessing the operation of cooperatives in Nghe An, the Chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance said: Cooperative development in Nghe An has had positive changes through the number of newly established cooperatives and many cooperative models developing according to the value chain.

However, there are still some problems: The number of communes without cooperatives is still large; many cooperatives have converted according to the Law but are still "old wine in new bottles".

The Chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance suggested that the province, in addition to developing quantity, pay special attention to the quality of cooperative activities; develop cooperative groups and cooperative unions synchronously; review cooperatives in the area to classify their scale and quality to come up with practical and effective support plans for cooperatives.

Overview of the working session. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Along with that, the province needs to have policies to attract young people to join cooperatives and become cooperative founders. The province should soon establish a Fund to support cooperative development, so that through the Fund, capital support will come to cooperatives more conveniently.

In the coming time, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance will support the province in building 4 development models associated with the value chain of goods in the province; along with that, introducing and bringing large enterprises exporting vegetables and fruits to Nghe An to guide the production process for cooperatives in the area to deploy and consume products. In addition, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance will support cooperatives in establishing Management Boards; training and fostering cooperative management staff...