Strengthening cooperatives to tackle rising prices of goods

KUALA LUMPUR - The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC) is committed to helping address the problem of rising food prices, among others through the empowerment of cooperatives involved in agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

Its minister, Tan Sri Noh Omar said the Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia (SKM) had allocated RM1 million for cooperatives involved in those fields and encouraged them to conduct business in the form of "contract farming" not involving middlemen.

"We have 15 cooperatives involved in contract farming, but they are involved with big companies (such as KFC dan CP). Imagine if we could create a cooperative that rears chickens, fish and so on, and we have a collection centre and we buy on our own to avoid the involvement of middlemen," he said on Bernama TV's "Ruang Bicara" programme titled "Towards 100 years of Cooperatives in Malaysia", on Monday night.

In the meantime, he also encouraged the community to set up cooperatives, especially for graduates.

"We will also provide initial assistance for them to be more enthusiastic in setting up cooperatives and the conditions for its establishment have also been eased, with only 20 people (one) can set up a cooperative," he said.

The 100th-anniversary celebration of cooperatives this year, with the theme "100 Years of Cooperative Movement, Building Keluarga Malaysia", will be held on Feb 12. - BERNAMA