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$3m project to help develop VN co-ops
France’s Technological Research and Exchange Group (GRET) yesterday teamed up with Viet Nam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment to help develop domestic co-operatives under a project named AID-Coop.
More than two million euros (US$3.25 million) will be pumped into the five-year project by the European Commission and France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Initial focus will be on establishing laws and policies appropriate for the development of co-operatives. Following this, trial run support will be given to co-operatives in three northern provinces: Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc and Ninh Binh.
"AID-Coop covers both macroeconomic policy and micro-level development of individual co-operatives," Nguyen Minh Tu, head of the ministry’s co-operative department, said.
Over 350,000 Vietnamese co-operatives had contributed almost 8 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product for the past five years, said deputy minister of planning and investment Cao Viet Sinh. However, the co-operatives still face shortcomings, such as small scale, low efficiency, poor management and a lack of competitiveness, when compared with other sectors of the economy. Overcoming these issues would add to the country’s economic and social development, Sinh said.
Patrice Lamballe, who heads up GRET’s operation in Viet Nam, expects co-operatives to bridge the gap between poor farmers that supply unprocessed products and agricultural retailers. The project will also help improve State management of co-operatives.
VNN
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