HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ on Thurdsay called on relevant agencies to use the Government’s agriculture policies to push the development of co-operatives in Việt Nam.

The deputy PM suggested the agencies to review and take advantages od credit policy for the agriculture sector, agriculture investment incentives and agriculture insurance to boost the operation of co-operatives. The deputy PM is also head of the National Steering Committee on Innovation and Development of Collective Economic Sector and Co-operatives.

The 24-member committee was established last March under the direction of Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc. The committee is assigned to study and make recommendations to the Prime Minister about policies and strategies to develop collective economic sector institutions and co-operatives. It directs and coordinates ministries and agencies in implementing policies for co-operatives.

Speaking at the meeting on Thurday, Huệ said that at a time when Việt Nam is restructuring its economy and wants to strengthen the private sector, further attention must be given to the innovations of co-operatives.

“The innovations of co-operatives are in line with restructuring in agricultural production and the formation of new style rural areas,” he said.

The new-styled co-operatives regulated by the 2012 Law on Co-operatives help households to generate more value, Huệ said.

The old-style co-operatives in Việt Nam did not allow members to run individual businesses. Members contributed capital, land and labour to the co-operatives and their income completely depended on the income of the co-operatives.

The old-style co-operatives, which were always cared for by the State and Party, played an important role during wartime and the era of a centralized planned economy in Việt Nam. But they regularly failed to adapt to the transition to an economy operating under the socialist-oriented market mechanism.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Đặng Huy Đông said that since the Law on Co-operatives took effects in 2013, there are over 19,500 co-operatives in Việt Nam with 6.2 million members.

The number of co-operatives increased by 600, but the number of members dropped by 1.4 million compared to before 2013.

Last year, the average income of a co-operative was VNĐ 3 billion (US$132,000), while the rate in 2012 was VNĐ 2.5 billion.

In 2016, a member of a co-operative had yearly income of VNĐ 31 million ($1,400), VNĐ 10 million more than in 2012.

Võ Kim Cự, chairman of Việt Nam Co-operatives Alliance said that Việt Nam’s co-operatives faced four major difficulties: access to land, access to credit, the application of scientific development and technology, and finding a market for their products.

As half of all co-operatives in Việt Nam operate in agriculture, co-operatives play an important role in ensuring social welfare, providing jobs, developing rural areas and especially restructuring agriculture production, Cự said. — VNS