A forum on collective economy and the development of cooperatives would be held in the third quarter of this year. — Photo baochinhphu.vn

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung approved the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s plan of organising the cooperative forum in the third quarter of this year.

The forum aimed to create a platform for cooperatives to speak about problems and difficulties, to share experiences and to propose policies to the Government.

With the theme “Cooperation for development”, the forum would discuss measures to develop the collective economy through promoting links among cooperatives and with other business models in the context of Industry 4.0.

The forum was expected to attract about 500 delegates.

On the sidelines, there would be an exhibition to display products of cooperatives.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the collective economy contributed around four per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.

To date, there are 22,861 cooperatives in operation in Viet Nam, including 13,856 agricultural cooperatives, 1,183 people’s credit funds and 7,822 non-agricultural cooperatives, which altogether attracted six million members.

The annual average revenue of cooperatives was VND4.4 billion (US$189,600) in 2018, 5.2 times higher than 2003. Average profit also increased from VND74 million in 2003 to VND240.5 million in 2018.

There were 74 unions of cooperatives, 39 of which were operating in agriculture. The unions of cooperatives attracted 375 member cooperatives and created jobs for 25,200 labours. The unions of cooperatives had average revenue of VND994 million per year and profit of VND148 million.

Cooperatives and unions of cooperatives provided jobs for two million labourers.

Besides, there were 101,400 cooperative groups with 1.34 million members. — VNS