Malaysia Participates In International Year Of Cooperatives

By Norfarhana Ahya Arip KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, together with member nations of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) such as Switzerland, Japan, Iran, Canada and Brazil will launch the International Year of Co-operatives (IYC) in 2012. Executive Chairman of the Co-operatives Commission of Malaysia (CCM) Md Yusof Samsudin said the agreement was reached after the United Nations (UN) declared 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives in October with the theme "Co-operative Enterprises Build A Better World". "The IYC gives an opportunity to the co-operatives worldwide to join in the efforts to raise public awareness on ways of doing business through the co-operatives which place importance on the consumers instead of being driven by profit alone," he said in an interview with Bernama recently. The ICA, which was set up in 1895, is the largest non-governmental organisation responsible for uniting and providing advisory service to its 93 member nations. Md Yusof said Malaysia would begin the year with the launching of the IYC by Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob at Taman Tasik Permaisuri on Nov 26. The launching programme, which is targeting an attendance of more than 10,000 people, will include a jogathon, an exhibition and sale of products produced by co-operatives, fishing competition, and street soccer. In addition, CCM as the IYC Celebration chairman would organise the 'International Seminar for Asia Pacific Region', 'ASEAN Co-operative Ministers Conference', National Co-operatives Day, International Convention on School Co-operatives and the 'International Rural Women's Day', he said. A Co-operatives Expo would be held in November next year to conclude the IYC celebration programme, he said. "At the closing ceremony, the achievements of the events held during the (IYC) programme throughout the year and their impact on the co-operatives movement and national development would be publicised, Md Yusof said. He also projected the co-operatives movement to make a profit of more than RM22.8 billion (US$7.6 billion) through the targeted formation of 10,000 co-operatives by the end of next year. He also said that as of June this year, the more than 8,900 existing co-operatives made a total profit of RM21.8 billion (US$7.2 billion). -- BERNAMA