Creating momentum to promote the development of collective economy and cooperatives in the new period

NDO - On the morning of February 2, at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 2024 Cooperative and Economic Forum with the theme "Improving the State's support policies according to Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW dated June 16, 2022 - A driving force to promote the development of collective and cooperative economies in the new period".

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered the opening speech at the forum.

Co-chairing the Forum was Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai - Head of the Steering Committee for Innovation and Development of Collective Economy and Cooperatives; also attending at the Government Headquarters were representatives of leaders of ministries, departments, branches, central agencies; experts, scientists, diplomatic agencies, international organizations. The Forum was broadcast live to the headquarters of the People's Committees of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities.

Forum view.

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that this is an annual event of the Government, a Forum of important significance, a place to share, exchange, and propose important directions and policies to remove difficulties, overcome challenges, take advantage of opportunities, and develop the collective economic sector and cooperatives. Vietnam is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party and the country, so it is necessary to mobilize all resources and economic sectors for rapid and sustainable development based on science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, green transformation... in line with world trends, in which resources must be mobilized from different economic sectors, especially cooperatives.

The conference took place in person at the Government Office and online to provinces and cities across the country.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the process of formation and development of cooperatives in the world has gone through more than 200 years. In Vietnam, the collective economy, with cooperatives as its core, has also been formed and developed for nearly 70 years and has made important contributions to the cause of national liberation, construction and protection of the Fatherland. The collective economic sector is one of the four important economic sectors in the socialist-oriented market economy of Vietnam (including the State economy, collective economy, private economy, and foreign-invested economy).

At the 5th Central Conference, 13th term, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized: “… consider this an important economic component along with the state economy, increasingly becoming a solid foundation of the national economy… It must be clearly recognized: Developing and improving the operational efficiency of the collective economy is the task of the entire political system… is an important and regular political task”.

Collective economic development is an inevitable trend in the context of international integration, in line with Vietnam's socialist-oriented market economy. Collective economic organizations operate with economic interests as the main focus; at the same time, they attach importance to political , cultural and social interests in each locality; in which: promoting the interests of members, cooperation, association, mutual assistance, aiming at enriching each member and the collective; implementing social policies in the locality.

Representatives of leaders of ministries, departments and branches attended the forum.

Over the past years, the Party, State, Government, all levels, sectors and localities have always paid attention to and issued and implemented many policies, mechanisms and strategies to develop the collective economy and cooperatives. Up to now, the collective economic sector has basically overcome the prolonged weakness. Cooperatives have basically completed the transition to a new model. The number of newly established cooperatives and cooperative unions has increased significantly, developing more diversely in terms of occupations, scale and qualifications; providing better support for members, creating jobs and increasing income for workers. The connection between cooperatives and with enterprises and other economic organizations has initially developed. The Prime Minister noted that Vietnam is a developing country with a transitional economy, limited economic scale, large openness, and limited resilience to external shocks, so the way to do it is to apply what is ripe, clear, proven to be correct in practice, and agreed by the majority; not to be perfectionist, not hasty. The Prime Minister made it clear that when organizing implementation, it must be appropriate to the situation and circumstances.

Representatives of leaders of ministries, departments and branches attended the forum.

However, the collective economic sector of our country has not yet developed as targeted and required. The growth rate and contribution rate of the collective economic sector to GDP are still low. Some members participating in cooperative activities are still formalistic, not fully exercising their rights and obligations. The efficiency of cooperative activities is not high, the organizational model is loose and inappropriate; the level of management staff is limited; most cooperatives and cooperative groups are small in scale, with a narrow scope of operation and low competitiveness. Joint ventures and associations between cooperatives and between cooperatives and other economic organizations are not yet popular. As stated in Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW: "Although there are many preferential and support policies for the collective economy, they are spread out, dispersed, mainly integrated, lacking concentration, not unified, lacking resources or not feasible". From there, we must have new thinking, methodology, and approaches to contribute to removing difficulties, limiting shortcomings, weaknesses, and overcoming challenges. At this Forum, the Prime Minister asked delegates to exchange, discuss, and share in a frank and responsible spirit, focusing on a number of main contents: analyzing the development status of the collective economic sector and cooperatives; what has been done, what has not been done; existence, limitations and causes; analyzing opportunities, challenges and support needs in the collective economic sector and cooperatives in the coming time; valuable experiences, good lessons domestically and internationally; suggesting breakthrough solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles, especially in attracting social resources; strengthening links between members participating in the collective economy; Improve the effectiveness of coordination between ministries, branches, localities, between public and private sectors... so that the collective economic sector and cooperatives can fundamentally and strongly change their production and business methods to meet the requirements of the new development situation.

The Prime Minister also emphasized how support policies for the collective economic sector and cooperatives must be innovated to be more practical, effective, focused, and especially suitable to the market mechanism, creating motivation for this sector to catch up, progress together and rise compared to other economic sectors in Vietnam's market economy, especially in terms of infrastructure, technology, capital, tax, investment; strongly promoting digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, sharing economy, and knowledge economy.

In that spirit, the Prime Minister asked delegates to speak and discuss briefly, go straight to the point, and propose feasible and effective solutions to strengthen the development of collective and cooperative economies.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of December 31, 2022, the country had 29,378 cooperatives, 125 cooperative unions and 71,000 cooperative groups. Compared to 2021, the number of cooperatives increased by 2,036 (up about 7%), cooperative unions increased by 18 (up about 17%) and the number of cooperative groups decreased by more than 2,000 (down about 3%).

The number of newly established cooperatives in 2022 is about 2,600, and 564 cooperatives will be dissolved. Of the total number of cooperatives nationwide, there are about 19,500 agricultural cooperatives (accounting for about 66.4%) and nearly 10,000 non-agricultural cooperatives (including 1,181 people's credit funds (4.0%); 2,500 industrial-handicraft cooperatives (8.5%); 2,300 trade and service cooperatives (7.83%); 1,700 transport cooperatives (5.79%); 940 construction cooperatives (3.2%); 554 environmental cooperatives (1.9%); and other cooperatives (2.08%). The total number of cooperative members is 5,935 thousand members, an increase of 243 thousand members (an increase of about 4%) compared to the previous year; the number of member cooperatives of the cooperative union is 851 cooperatives, an increase of 183 cooperatives (an increase of about 1%). 27%) compared to 2021 and the total number of cooperative members is 1,044 thousand members, a decrease of more than 53 thousand members (down about 5%) compared to 2021; the total number of regular employees in the cooperative in 2022 is 976.3 thousand people, down about 9% compared to 2021.

Representatives of the Ministry of Planning and Investment spoke at the forum.

It is estimated that in 2023, the country will have about 31,700 cooperatives, 158 cooperative unions and 73,000 cooperative groups. Compared to 2022, the number of cooperatives will increase by about 2,200 (equivalent to an increase of 7.9%), the number of cooperative unions will increase by 23 (an increase of about 26.4%) and the number of cooperative groups will increase by about 2,000 (an increase of 2.8%). The number of newly established cooperatives in 2023 will reach about 2,700, while nearly 400 will be dissolved. Of the total number of cooperatives nationwide, there are 20,357 agricultural cooperatives and 11,343 non-agricultural cooperatives. In general, the performance indicators of cooperatives, cooperative unions and cooperative groups in 2022 will all increase compared to the previous year, as the Covid-19 pandemic has been controlled; The Government has implemented many policies to support businesses, cooperatives, business households and people to restore production and business; cooperatives are making efforts to find markets and increase production. The average revenue of cooperatives reached VND 3,592 million/cooperative/year, an increase of VND 935 million (up 35%) compared to 2021. The average profit of a cooperative in 2022 is VND 366 million/cooperative/year (an increase of VND 152 million, equivalent to an increase of about 71% compared to 2021); the average income of a regular worker in a cooperative in 2022 is VND 56 million/person (an increase of about VND 4 million, equivalent to an increase of 8% compared to 2021).

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates visited the photo exhibition on cooperative economy at the forum. By June 2023, the country had 1,718 agricultural cooperatives applying high technology and digital technology in production and business, with over 4,339 agricultural cooperatives undertaking the purchase of agricultural products, equivalent to 24.5% of the total number of agricultural cooperatives, while this rate was only 5-7% before 2015.

NEWS: THANH GIANG; PHOTO: TRAN HAI

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