The agreement was signed by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) and the ROK’s National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (NACF) in Hanoi, on March 22.
Currently, Vietnam has over 20,100 cooperatives, 80,340 cooperative groups and 59 cooperative unions. Of which 12,000 cooperatives are operating in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, while 8,000 others are in the fields of industry, services and currency, attracting 5.7 million members and creating jobs for 2.4 million labourers.
The cooperative economy in general and cooperatives in particular have been considered as a key contributor to the rapid, sustainable growth of the economy and social welfare, especially in rural and agricultural areas.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, VCA President Nguyen Ngoc Bao said that the deal was born from the international economic cooperation policies from the State and advantages from the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement that took effect in the beginning of 2017.
Under the agreement, with immediate effect from 2018, the VCA and NACF have agreed to strengthen their cooperation in the fields of staff training and capacity building for agricultural cooperatives, building new cooperative models, cooperating in the production of goods and equipment for agricultural cooperatives, and exchanging experience in agricultural cooperative development.
NACF Chairman Kim Byeong Won expressed his belief that through the cooperative agreement, the two cooperative organisations would find new opportunities for both Vietnam’s and the ROK’s development.
He also revealed that NACF would support the establishment of a chain of shops in Vietnam to export Korean agricultural commodities, seeds, fertilisers and agricultural machinery to the host country. The Korean cooperative agency also wants to discover new business opportunities in the financial sector, such as banking, insurance and leasing, as well as running a joint microfinance company, after being discussed thoroughly, Kim Byeong Won added.
NACF is the ROK’s top agricultural cooperative, established in 1961. With a total asset of US$1 trillion, the NACF is the tenth largest organisation in the ROK in terms of assets, gathering more than 80% the ROK’s farmers.
