Seminar: Law on Co-operatives

The Seminar on ‘Law of Co-operatives – International Experiences and Realities in Vietnam’ was organised by VCA at Vinh Phuc from 3-4 June 2011.The speakers of the Seminar were from Ministry of Planning and Investment, VCA,  The Justice Department of Vietnam, and International experts from Germany, Korea and ICA-AP.  The Symposium was attended many representatives from co-operatives and the government in Vietnam.

The discussion at the house was the newly developed co-operative law of Vietnam, if passed by the 11^th Legislature would take effect amending the existing 2003 Law. The 2011 draft law was provided for everyone’s perusal along with seminar papers to be presented.

The session was started with welcome by VCA Vice President and remarks from ICA-AP Regional Director in his opening speech. The core issues to be dealt with in the seminar were the aspects of co-operative Legislations in light of Social needs and Poverty reduction through co-operative Business.

Day 1 of the seminar had ICA-AP presenting a paper on Co-operative Laws as Tools for development of co-operatives in Asia Pacific. That was followed by Q/A where the Regional Director answered questions from the participants. Thereafter the Ministry of Planning and investment made a presentation on co-operative Ideas - a core of Law on co-operatives followed by instances and issues raised by individual members of co-operatives attending the Seminar.

Questions raised Pertained to:

1. Indivisible asset of a co-operative
2. The importance of terms association, enterprise in the definition of co-operatives.
3. The meaning of Producer Company.

The relevance of International codes in national law

The session was followed by Presentation by the Ministry of Planning and Investment wherein the Ministry official began with Ho chi Minh Quote “ Solidarity, Solidarity, great solidarity, success, success and great success.” And based his presentation on development of co-operatives through analysing business models and choosing the law based upon co-operative principles in the times when the International codes such as the WTO have been adhered to by many countries. He also clarified about the nature of Union of Co-operatives.

He thereafter shared the importance of labour in co-operation, the economic, social and cultural impact of co-operatives and finished by saying there has to be a complete legal framework and policies on co-operatives in Vietnam and giving direct benefits to the members being a priority.

Thereafter the amendments in the proposed drafts those have been mentioned in the document provided by VCA was debated upon through lengthy decision and question -airing by the participants who where the members and in many cases the chairman and Chief officers of co-operatives in Vietnam.  The opinion was shared with Dr. CHOI, ICA-AP who answered them citing his experiences in the region.

The International Experiences were shared by Experts from Germany and Korea on the final day of the Seminar. Mr. Lee from NACF made a detailed report upon the functioning of the NACF and the co-operative system in Korea.  The concept of open and close membership was discussed in relation to its inclusion in the Vietnamese Co-operative Law.  Along with this The UN International Year of Co-operatives was introduced by Dr. CHOI, RD ICA-AP and he gave recommendation and discussed the importance of the year.

The Vice – Chairman of VCA made recommendations to the International community through ICA-AP as follows:

1. Help collect new/revised Law and send them to VCA including the Korean amendment of 2011.
2. More workshops in relation with Co-operative Law if possible. Exchange of more cases like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia.
3. ICA could organise a study visit at Vietnam for other participants from the regional members.