Connectivity helpful for cooperatives to create own strength
Vietnam must strive hard to achieve the target of 15,000 effective cooperatives by 2020, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.
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Production connectivity and sales of farm produce play a significant role in developing agriculture, he said.
Connectivity will help increase interests of the involved parties, especially farmers, while limiting small-scale production and expanding goods production, he added.
As of June 2018, Vietnam had 47 cooperatives alliances, including nearly 20,000 cooperatives with charter capital of VND34 trillion (US$1.46 billion).
The country aims to have 15,000 effective cooperatives by 2020, but few cooperatives have built development plans and have enough capital to expand production.
Surveys conducted in Mekong Delta provinces showed that the number of cooperatives with access to loans is limited.
According to the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA), the country is home to 48 cooperative development funds with charter capital of more than VND800 billion (US$34.4 million).
Many cooperatives, even when they have capital to develop production, fail to build effective business plans. This is a big problem in the field, said Tran Minh Hai, director of the cooperative economy training and consulting centre at Institute of Management for Agriculture and Rural Development II.
To overcome capital difficulties, some cooperatives have connected with businesses to create revenue for their operation.
Among the more than 12,000 agricultural cooperatives, a mere 190 have applied high technology in production.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam suggested localities establish consulting groups to support agricultural cooperatives with technology.
He recommended strengthening links between businesses and cooperatives while encouraging organisations to transfer science-technology and provide capital assistance for cooperatives.
Over the years, to build a strong system of cooperatives, the VCA has proposed cooperatives join production value chains, which could help them address difficulties in production and supply of products.
This model will also help improve the quality of human resources and the management capacity of the cooperative managing boards.
