HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) asked provinces and cities on Thursday to dissolve ineffective agricultural cooperatives by the end of 2018.

The ministry’s data shows that in 2017, Việt Nam had nearly 11,700 agricultural cooperatives and 30 cooperative coalitions. Some 3,900 agricultural cooperatives had been newly established, while 6,650 others were re-registered under the 2012 agricultural cooperative law.

The average income of an agricultural cooperative is VNĐ980 million (US$43,000) per year and that of a cooperative coalition is VNĐ1.5 billion ($66,000) per year. Some cooperatives working in several provinces and cities earn hundreds of billions of đồng every year, such as Hoa Anh Đào in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng, Tân Thông Hội dairy cow cooperative in HCM City and Evergrowth in the Mekong Delta province of Sóc Trăng.

However, there are 795 agricultural cooperatives that are either operating poorly or have stopped working but still have not been dissolved due to problems of asset disposal, debts and human resources.

According to the 2012 cooperative law, non-functioning cooperatives need to be dissolved to establish new ones. However, Ma Quang Trung, head of the Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development under MARD, told Thanh Niên (Young People) newspaper that none of these cooperatives have voluntarily dissolved. Therefore, they will be forced to shut down. 

According to Trung, old cooperatives cannot keep up with modern production methods. So, it is impossible for them to attract new members. Moreover, the State asset in cooperatives can be illegally occupied if local authorities are not serious and careful about dissolving cooperatives.

“The process of re-establishing cooperatives is still slow. From now until the end of 2018, ineffective and non-working cooperatives have been asked to be dissolved,” he said. 

At present, there are several undissolved cooperatives in 35 provinces, mostly in Bắc Giang Province, which has 115 such ccooperatives, followed by Hà Nội (53) and Hải Phòng (49). — VNS