The national online conference assesses 20 years of implementing the 2002 Resolution on Collective Economy and 10 years of implementing the 2012 Law on Cooperatives (Photo: VNA)

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, who is Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for the Development of the Collective Economy and Cooperatives, said that over the last 20 years, together with economic reform and international economic integration, the collective economy has overcome challenges to consolidate its position.

Important position of the collective economy    

The collective economy consists of diverse economic cooperation models, in which the cooperative is one key component. It has corrected its weaknesses and gradually reformed in coordination with the market mechanism to become an important part of ensuring social security and the national economy.  

As of December 31, 2021, Vietnam had over 27,000 cooperatives, 2.5 times as many as in 2001. The cooperatives have nearly six million members and employ one million non-member workers. Turnover and profits of cooperatives have increased year after year. In 2020 the average turnover was 189,000 USD per cooperative and the average profit was 13,800 USD per cooperative, an increase of 60% in turnover and 88% in profit compared to 2013.

The average annual income of full-time workers in cooperatives increase from 1,960 USD in 2017 to 2,320 USD in 2019.

During the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and Vietnam’s integration into the global economy with commitments to open its commodities, services, and investment markets, the collective economy has faced both challenges and opportunities. Five groups of solutions have been recommended for the collective economy to develop dynamically, effectively, and sustainably.

Five groups of policies to develop the collective economy

The first group of policies fine tunes regulations on cooperatives. Cooperative membership is open to citizens under 18 years old,  people with disabilities,  people not residing in Vietnam, businesses, cooperative groups, and state employees. Cooperative information is transparent and IT applications create favorable conditions for reporting, providing quick and accurate information, enhancing transparency, and protecting members' interests.

The second group of policies fine tunes regulations on cooperative models and representative organizations. The government will study supplementary regulations  for long-term cooperative groups to register for establishment and fine tune regulations on the role and position of Cooperative Alliances in line with other laws and international integration commitments.

The third group is about market expansion to attract capital and generate power for cooperatives.

The fourth group fine tunes and improves the management of cooperatives and cooperarive alliances. The government will fine tune both internal and independent audits of cooperatives.

The last group improves the validity and efficiency of state management of the collective economy and offers cooperatives opportunities to join and withdraw from the market, strengthen post-inspection, create a level playing field with businesses, boost IT application and digitalization, and build and exploit a national database for collective economy registration, organization, and operation.  

Provisions for the collective economic sector across the country will be unified, covering taxes, fees, human resource training, trade promotion, market expansion, and credit, aiming to promote the collective economy commensurately with its role in the socialist-oriented market economy.