On the morning of April 27, in Hanoi, the Central Theoretical Council and Vietnam National University of Agriculture organized a scientific seminar, “Some theoretical-practical issues on agricultural development in Vietnam in a new context.” To provide additional scientific arguments for developing new guidelines on the collaborative economy and agricultural cooperatives, contribute to successfully implementing the Resolution of the XIII Congress of the Party.
Cooperatives are the spine of the collaborative economy
- Professor. Nguyen Thi Lan, Director of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, is speaking.
In the opening speech, Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Director of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, affirmed that developing a cooperative economy is the consistent and transparent policy of the Party in the region—the process of creating the socialist-oriented market economy in our country. After 20 years (2002–2021) of implementing the Resolution of the 5th Central Committee, IX session, on continuing to innovate, develop, and improve the efficiency of the collaborative economy, we have achieved the following results: Collective economies and cooperation in the community have grown in both quantity and quality, overcome long-standing weaknesses, attract 33% of the total number of households in rural areas to participate, and nearly 60% of cooperatives operate with results that positively contribute to sustainable economic growth, especially in the agricultural economy and new rural construction.
Over the years, the Central Theoretical Council and relevant agencies have actively implemented preparations for the 5th Conference and the 13th Central Committee to consider and make new decisions on innovation and collaborative economic development, and land policy reform. These will be critical decisions for agriculture, farmers, and rural areas in our country for many years.
Professor. Dr. Ta Ngoc Tan, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, is speaking.
Professor Dr. Ta Ngoc Tan, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, emphasized: The Central Theoretical Council has had the process of working, researching, and summarizing 15 years of implementing the Central Resolution 7, Session X, on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas and 20 years of implementing the Resolution of the 5th Central Conference, IX Session, on continuing to renovate, develop, and improve collective economic efficiency.
Professor Ta Ngoc Tan said that agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam are the backbone of the collaborative economy, and the seminar’s success not only summarized the process of implementing the Central Resolution on agriculture, farmers, and rural areas but also continued to develop awareness about the fundamental issue of the country, which is the cooperative economy.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duy Loi (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) said that the cooperative is not only a social organization, not having to organize charities, but a business organization. Extraordinary sacrifice promotes “cooperation” in the community of cooperative members to effectively meet the general needs in economic activities and social and cultural needs of the members and, first of all, bring benefits—the economy—for members.
The cooperative is an indispensable institution that contributes to the development of the country in harmony with all economic, political, social, and cultural aspects; it is essential for promoting the development of the household economy, the private economy, and individuals in both rural and urban areas; and it meets the rich needs of community life according to cooperative principles.
However, according to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duy Loi, awareness of the cooperative must be clarified and consistent. Many places still think that cooperatives are some individuals and capital contributions to conduct production and business activities to meet market demand in combination with several cooperative principles such as voluntary participation and democracy management. The theoretical system emphasizes that the cooperative and union of cooperatives must fulfill their obligations to supply and consume products, services, and jobs for members and then to the market.
According to Dr. Phi Thi Diem Hong (Vietnam National University of Agricultural), the cooperative’s mechanisms of control and operation need to be more practical. The cooperative’s business plan targets, inspection, and management could be more challenging to measure and identify. The current cooperation model in Vietnam has only achieved part of the growth stage and still needs to promote the existing resources’ full potential and strengths.
Improve the quality of human resources, especially the management team.
The conference scene
Many opinions say that the collaborative economy and cooperatives, especially agricultural cooperatives in our developed country, still need to meet the requirements; shortcomings, inadequacies, and limitations in scale and operational efficiency exist. Many studies have shown that there are still “bottlenecks” in the perception of the role of cooperatives, operating mechanisms, laws, and policies to support the collaborative economy, and the governance capacity of the commune is still weak. In the new general context of global integration, the fluctuations of the world’s economy and politics, the fourth industrial revolution, and climate change require a macro-strategic adjustment for the sustainable economic development of collectives and cooperatives.
To identify effective cooperatives, Dr. Phi Thi Diem Hong said that it is necessary to base the identification on the basis and goals of the cooperative, thereby ensuring the principle of voluntariness—democracy—and bringing benefits to both sides. Members and collectives of cooperatives; at the same time, it is necessary to actively seek investment opportunities and improve professional knowledge and organizational capacity.
Professor. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Director of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, said that for cooperative models to work effectively, one of the critical factors is to improve the quality of human resources. The Vietnam National University of Agriculture will actively train professional staff and provide high-quality human resources for agricultural cooperatives. In addition, the Director of the Vietnam National University of Agriculture affirmed that in the coming time, it is necessary to promote propaganda and raise awareness about the role of cooperatives, thereby planning content related to the framework of cooperatives’ legal framework and regulations to support and encourage cooperatives to develop, perfecting the legal basis for the cooperative model to be effective in the future.
In addition, for the collaborative model in Vietnam to be effective, many people think that it is necessary to edit and supplement the legal regulations (including laws and documents under the law) in the direction of criteria on the nature of the cooperative and its membership; perfect the policy to improve the quality of human resources, especially the management team, of the cooperative to create or maintain the “health” of the cooperative in the long term. The delegates also suggested that it is necessary to supplement legal regulations to promote cooperatives’ organizational and operating capacity to “nourish” the cooperative’s activities in the right direction and moral nature, limit risks, and improve production and business efficiency.
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