To summarize 20 years of implementing Resolution No. 13-NQ/TW dated March 18, 2012, of the IX Party Central Committee, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) organized a Workshop “International experiences on Developing Cooperative and Cooperative Law in the World” on March 18, 2022. It was organised in Hanoi, Vietnam in a hybrid setup wherein 94 participants were present in Hanoi and 72 participants joined online. 

The workshop aimed at exchanging knowledge on the 

• current situation of applying the Law on Cooperatives 2012 in Vietnam
• experience in cooperative development and government policies to support the cooperative movement
• experience in cooperative audit activities
• cooperative law and cooperative development policy in the Asia-Pacific region 
• international perspectives and recommendations for improvement of the Law on Cooperatives
• impacts in the amendment of the Cooperative Law.

It was chaired Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Chairman, VCA; Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Vice Chairman, VCA; Mr. Tran Duy Dong, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and Mr. Weert Borner, Deputy Ambassador, Head of Economic Department of the German Embassy.

The participants present in Hanoi were leaders of Ministries and branches of the Central Government, including standing members of the National Assembly Economic Committee, the National Assembly Committee, Central Economic Council, Central Theoretical Council, Legislative Research Institute, Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Cooperative Development - Ministry of Planning and Investment, representative of Hanoi Law University, Foreign Trade University; representatives of foreign organizations in Vietnam including ILO, Agriterra, DGRV, DID, FES Institute - Germany, Socodevi - Canada, SNV - Netherlands, Rosa Luxemburg Institute – Germany.

Delegation of the National Assembly of 46 provinces/ cities; cooperative federations of China, Korea, and Japan; the International Cooperatives Alliance (ICA), International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP); Chairmen/Vice Chairmen of 52 Cooperatives Alliances, Directors of cooperatives representing 63 provinces joined online.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Chairman, VCA said that cooperatives are core of the market economy, and have been always encouraged by the Party and State for their development. After 10 years of implementation of the Law on Cooperatives, the economic sectors and cooperatives have seen positive changes. In the past 20 years, there have been 37,810 newly established cooperatives in Vietnam. However, the growth rate of the market economy of the cooperative sector is still low compared to other economic sectors, and the contribution rate to GDP has not met the requirements. This is mostly because the cooperatives are small in scale and develop unevenly among regions, between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. In addition, there have been several issues in the implementation of the Law on Cooperatives 2012.

Mr. Tran Duy Dong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment noted that the workshop is important for the Ministry to learn valuable experiences from the process of perfecting the legal framework as well as developing the cooperative sector of countries and international organizations as a reference for the development of the Law on Cooperatives (amended) of Vietnam.

Mr. Weert Borner, Deputy Ambassador, Head of the Economic Department of the German Embassy gave a speech on the principles of cooperatives. He said that Germany fully supports Vietnam's efforts to modernize its cooperative system. Although Vietnam's Law on Cooperatives in 2012 has created many favorable conditions for the economic and cooperative sectors, it is necessary to rethink to improve the legal basis for cooperative activities. 

Mr. Phung Quoc Chi, Director of the Department of Cooperative Development - Ministry of Planning and Investment presented an assessment of the current situation and challenges of applying the Law on Cooperatives 2012 in Vietnam. He noted that to overcome the shortcomings in the legal framework, the Government's Resolution No. 22/NQ-CP dated February 28, 2022 agreed to assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to complete the proposal of the Law on Cooperatives (amended), to be submitted to the National Assembly for addition to the program of law and ordinance development in 2022.

Speaking about the proposals and recommendations to amend the Law on Cooperatives 2012, Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Vice Chairman, VCA raised views similar to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. 

After the speeches of the domestic delegates, the first session focused on the experiences of the cooperative development of foreign cooperative federations. Mr. Zhang Wangshu, Head of the International Cooperation Department, All China Federation of Supply and Consumption Cooperatives (ACFSMC) gave an overview of Chinese cooperatives. Mr. Takuo Ichiya, Deputy Director of the General Department, Ja-Zenchu, gave a speech on the independence and autonomy of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Japan (JA Zenchu). Mr. Jae Ho Lee, Director of the Economic Research Institute, National Agricultural Cooperatives of Korea Federation (NACF), shared Korea's experience in developing cooperatives and the support from the Government. Mr. Richard van der Maiden, a delegate from the Dutch Organization for Agricultural Development (Agriterra) - gave a speech on the development of cooperatives in the Netherlands. Ms. Anja Muthmann, DGRV, shared their audit services for cooperatives.

In the next session, legal experts from the ICA Cooperative Law Committee, the Legal Department of ICA, and representatives from ICA-AP gave speeches about formulating positions and policy development of Cooperative Law and international experience in the development of cooperative law.

Mr. Balu Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP highlighted the important role of the state in the development of cooperatives, suggesting that cooperatives need to be equipped with new skills in technology, and take steps to transform themselves to adapt to the new context. He presented the latest trends and governmental policies in cooperative development in the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Santosh Kumar - Head of the legal department, ICA highly appreciated the process of developing cooperative law, he said that this is a way to approach closer to the economic and cooperative sector. Ms. Ann Apps, a Member of the ICA Cooperative Law Committee raised common problems in  Asia- Pacific (Fiji, Vanuatu, PNG, Kiribati, Australia, New Zealand) and broader legal issues impacted by globalization in Australia. Professor Akira Kurimoto, Chairman of the ICA Cooperative Research Committee, provided terminology on cooperatives, research, documents on cooperative law and an overview of cooperative law in Asia. 

In concluding the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong thanked the speakers, scientists, managers, and experts for their enthusiasm in sharing a lot of useful information - valuable documents for research and restoration. Through discussions and opinions, the workshop agreed to have 5 recommendations with the Government, ministries and branches for amending the Law on Cooperatives 2012:

1. Fully institutionalizing the Party's viewpoints, policies and guidelines
2. Amending the Law on Cooperatives in 2012 should create a "breakthrough" step, focusing on overcoming limitations and shortcomings for the development of the collective economy and cooperatives
3. Creating favorable conditions for cooperatives to develop quickly, sustainably and equally with other economic sectors
4. Diversifying forms of association and cooperation, focusing on improving the quality and operational efficiency of cooperatives and unions of cooperatives under the market mechanism, operating like enterprises; respect the nature, objectives, principles of organization and operation of the cooperative
5. Clearly defining the legal status, functions and tasks of the representative organization of cooperatives and unions of cooperatives, of which VCA is the representative organization approved by the Party and State, acting as a bridge between the Party, the State and the collective economic sectors, contributing to the cause of socio-economic development association of the country.

The full report of the workshop can be read here.