New expectations for collective economic development

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - In 2022, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam issued Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW on continuing to innovate, develop and improve collective economic efficiency in the new time period. At the same time, the amended Law on Cooperatives will also take effect from July 2024. These are major events in the Vietnamese cooperative system, which are expected to become the new motivations, with more attention and investment from the State for the cooperative model to develop. 

Mr. Tran Quang, Director of Xuan Tien Agricultural Service Trading Cooperative (Xuan Loc District) on ST-24 rice fields. 

Important resolution for the cooperative model

After decades of establishing the Cooperative Alliance, in addition to the results achieved, the cooperative economic sector and cooperatives in Vietnam have not developed commensurate with their potential. Many challenges still exist, the internal capacity of cooperatives in general is still weak, and management at state level has many inadequacies.

Therefore, in 2022, in Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW on continuing to innovate, develop and improve collective economic efficiency in the new period, one of the important tasks is to have preferential policies and adequate support.

One of the special concerns in Resolution 20 is promoting the digital transformation roadmap for cooperatives. Accordingly, the Central Government has set a goal that by 2030 there will be 45 thousand cooperatives with 8 million members; 340 cooperative unions with 1.7 thousand cooperative members, including over 5 thousand cooperatives applying high technology to the production and consumption of agricultural products. By 2045, collective economic organizations will apply technology, especially digital transformation, to production, business and service activities.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that digital transformation is a major policy and direction of the Party and State. If the country does not drastically innovate associated with digital transformation for the collective and cooperative economic model, this model will lag behind and not be able to adapt to the modern digital economy, and digital society.

Along with Resolution 20, on June 20, 2023, the National Assembly also officially passed the Law on Cooperatives (amended) and will officially take effect from July 1, 2024. The goal of this amendment is to create an open legal corridor, eliminating regulations that hinder market entry; ensure and promote the characteristics and basic principles of cooperatives. At the same time, it creates favorable conditions for cooperative economic organizations to develop dynamically, effectively and sustainably, truly becoming an important component in the economy with many models of association and cooperation based on the nature of cooperatives.

Hoping for aid programs

Cooperatives are looking forward to more positive and stronger changes from the State, helping the collective economy develop. Thanh Binh Cooperative (Trang Bom district) specializes in producing and exporting products from banana trees. This is a cooperative that has been very proactive to enrich the value of banana trees with the product ecosystem instead of just bananas. Mr. Ly Minh Hung, Director of the Cooperative, said that his current wish as well as that of the cooperative members was to continue expanding export markets, promote deep processing, and import more modern machinery to serve production development.

However, to be able to develop cooperatives, they are also facing many challenges, the immediate problems are infrastructure, production plants, power sources, human resources qualifications... Therefore, when implementing policies, it is necessary to comes from field experience. It is necessary to consider solving the problem of lack of capital for those doing production and business in general, including the cooperative model.

Similarly, as a cooperative in the field of transportation, managing 3 thousand members engaged in freight transportation activities in Dong Nai and other provinces and cities, Mr. Chu The Thanh, Director of Thanh Phat Transport Services Cooperative (Bien Hoa city) said that to operate well, the business needs to be really active. In particular, human resource training is the decisive factor. Because if you want to innovate, the leader of that cooperative must have the knowledge, critical thinking, and taking action skills of a businessman. Meanwhile, the management skills training program for cooperatives is left untouched It is necessary to focus on training so that cooperative staff can improve themselves and grasp new knowledge to apply to production and business.

Sharing the same viewpoint, Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thuy, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Southeast Trade and Service Cooperative (Vinh Cuu District), said that in the coming time, the Cooperative planned to incorporate new tourism activities, including exploiting tourist routes by road combined with waterways to make the most of the potential and advantages of tourism on Dong Nai River, Dong Nai Cultural Nature Reserve, Cat Tien National Park... When launching new activities, in addition to policies for cooperatives in general, the business also wants to receive attention and support in tourism development policies, creating conditions to exploit full potential, advantages, and contribute to the development of Dong Nai's tourism. ​