Promoting Ho Chi Minh's Thought on Cooperatives in the Innovation Process
(Baonghean) - During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh was very interested in developing cooperatives, closely linked to the path to socialism in our country, especially the goal of innovation, development, and improving the operational efficiency of cooperatives according to the policies of the Party and State.
President Ho Chi Minh had a very simple way of mobilizing and calling for the establishment of cooperatives, but with profound theoretical meaning: "Whoever plants a tree will get to eat the fruit, whoever wants to eat the fruit, help them plant a tree" or "Group together to become rich, share together to become poor". He compared joining a cooperative to cooperating to build a house: One person carries a pillar, one person carries a piece of canvas, each person in a different place, the tent is neither a tent nor a house. But grouping those pillars, that canvas, that strength to create a spacious and impressive house... that is cooperation.
Members of the embroidery group in Dien Hoa - Dien Chau. Photo: Canh Yen
From the work "Revolutionary Path" to the letter to "landlords and farmers" or the talks, articles later and even in 1969 before he fell ill... all contained a consistent thought about the role of cooperatives with the people and rural agriculture. That viewpoint of Uncle Ho is still valuable, reminding everyone to identify and correctly perceive the nature of cooperation, cooperatives, especially the necessity of agricultural cooperatives in the current market economy and integration period.
President Ho Chi Minh's ideology, viewpoints and methods of guiding the development of cooperation are very clear, systematic but specific for each field and each stage, which is the inheritance and creative development of the ideology of world cooperatives. According to Ho Chi Minh's viewpoint, the forms of cooperatives are very diverse, from low to high, from small, simple to large-scale forms. In the work "Revolutionary Path" in 1927, Uncle Ho pointed out 4 types of cooperatives: money cooperatives, purchasing cooperatives, selling cooperatives, and reproductive cooperatives. He defined cooperatives very clearly: "Cooperatives are different from trading associations in their profit goals. Cooperatives are for the common benefit, trading associations are for their own benefit. Cooperatives are different from charitable associations: Although they are for helping each other, charitable associations only spend without making any money, cooperatives spend but make any money. Cooperatives help each other equally: everyone helps and no one is helped".
Imbued with the thoughts and viewpoints of President Ho Chi Minh in economic leadership, our Party and State regularly pay attention to the collective economic sector, building, consolidating and developing various types of cooperatives. Implementing the policy of abolishing the centralized bureaucratic subsidy mechanism to a socialist-oriented market mechanism, our Party advocates developing an economy with many forms of ownership and many economic sectors, but still continues to affirm the important role and position of the collective economy, cooperative economy and cooperatives in the comprehensive renovation of the national economy.
The Party and State have applied Ho Chi Minh's thought on cooperatives in a flexible and practical way to the task of innovating and developing cooperatives: Contract 100 and Contract 10 are policies that create a breakthrough mechanism for household economy, an effective solution to consolidate and promote the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives. Replacing the Cooperative Charter with the promulgation of the 1996 Cooperative Law, amending and supplementing the 2003 Law, and amending the 2012 Law Project, in order to create a legal framework for cooperative operations. Resolution 5 of the Central Committee (9th term) sets the goal of innovating, developing and improving the efficiency of the collective economy with many policies and mechanisms to support the development of cooperatives. Documents of the 9th and 10th Congresses and the Party's Platform for national construction in the period of innovation have affirmed: "The State economy, together with the collective economy, is increasingly becoming a solid foundation of the national economy". The Party's policies on cooperatives are to implement President Ho Chi Minh's viewpoint: "Determining the development of cooperatives as a part of the Vietnamese revolution" or "Cooperatives and labor exchange groups not only benefit themselves immediately but also benefit their descendants later" or "Cooperatives are the path to socialism for our country's farmers and agriculture".
After 10 years of implementing Resolution 5 of the Central Committee (9th term) and more than 15 years of implementing the Law on Cooperatives, the cooperative movement in the country in general and the Nghe An cooperative sector in particular have had many positive changes. Cooperatives continue to grow in number, diversify in types and many models, typical and new-style cooperatives have been established. Cooperative economy and cooperatives have made many important contributions to economic development, social security and actively contributed to job creation, poverty reduction, and new rural construction.
However, the quality of cooperative operations today still has many shortcomings. The goal by 2010 is to escape the weak state of the collective economy. However, the development of the collective economy is still very difficult. There may be many reasons leading to the current situation of cooperatives. Many opinions say that first of all, it is due to the inadequate awareness of cooperatives by government committees, organizations at all levels and even cooperatives themselves. In directing the development of the cooperative economy, the laws have not been properly applied and the thoughts and views of President Ho Chi Minh on cooperatives have not been properly implemented.
Today, we continue to clarify the basic contents of Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on cooperatives. Promoting his thoughts in the most scientific way to meet the requirements of cooperative development in the context of the current market economy and international economic integration is to thoroughly grasp Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on cooperatives in the most practical way. At the same time, these are actions to study and follow the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh.
On the occasion of the 122nd anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday, the cooperative sector of Nghe An province will be determined to overcome all difficulties to build strong enough cooperative types, improve internal strength to compete in integration, and be worthy of being the collective economy of President Ho Chi Minh's homeland.
Nguyen Van Hung
