The ICA-AP Committee on Consumer Cooperation held its annual meeting online on 13 December. It was attended by 15 participants including 7 Committee members and 7 observers from 7 countries.
Mr. Akihiro Yamakoshi, Chairperson of the ICA-AP Committee on Consumer Cooperation, chaired the meeting. He introduced the new organizations that joined the committee in 2022, these were – Matara District Cooperative Hospital Society Ltd in Sri Lanka, Panchashil Multipurpose Co-op Nepal, Hilltop Junar Multipurpose Cooperative Ltd., Kathmandu (Nepal) and National Cooperative Bank Limited in Nepal. He also announced the changes in some members.
Following this, the 2022 committee activities were reported. The committee held two meetings and three webinars this year. It was the first time for the committee to hold webinars in collaboration with other ICA-AP sectoral committees covering issues like What We Can do for Forest, Go Green Campaign, and Cooperative Identity.
The 2023 activity plan was proposed to members. The Committee plans to organise webinars to review past training programs and workshops, and on Coop-to-Coop trade with the ICA-AP Committee on Trade & Business. It also plans to organise on-site training programs in Japan and its 57th Annual Statutory Meeting as a side event of 16th ICA-AP Regional Assembly in November 2023.
In 2022, the committee could only hold online events but in 2023 it will try to hold both online and onsite events. Dr. Mohd Azlan Yahya, Vice-Chairperson of the committee, suggested that it would be great if ANGKASA and JCCU together organise the online workshop on the business model of consumer coops somewhere between August to October 2023. Ms. R. Vanitha, the committee member representing NCDC, India suggested holding a webinar on the role of pharmacy coops during the Covid-19 pandemic. The committee decided to take these suggestions under consideration.
The committee also reviewed the financial report and it was noted that adequate budget is available to organize the 2023 committee activities.
The committee members, Ms. Juhee Lee from iCOOP, Korea, Mr. Akihiro Yamakoshi from JCCU, Japan, Mr. Aung John Bo from CCS, Myanmmar, and Ms. Noraini Mohamad Yatin from ANGKASA, Malaysia shared their reports, including the overview of their coops, changes in the past 3 years and their training needs for the next year.
The Committee Chair proposed the two main goals for the next year – to promote members’ skills and knowledge and to find strong points of cooperatives and ways to compete with private sectors.
