Vietnam and Laos would combine forces in cooperative economy, heard a meeting in Hanoi on March 21 between President of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) Nguyen Ngoc Bao and head of the National Economic Research Institute of Laos Bouasone Bouphavanh.

 

The Lao guest said that he was impressed by the rapid changes in Vietnam, particularly in cooperative economy development.

 

He expressed his hope that Laos will branch out its cooperative system based on Vietnam’s experience.

 

Meanwhile, Bao expected that bilateral collaboration in the cooperative economy will make significant contributions to bolstering the development of the sector in the future.

 

He said that in the past few years, the Vietnamese Party and Government have outlined various policies and programmes to facilitate the development of the cooperative system in the context of the socialist-oriented market economy.

 

According to VCA Vice President Nguyen Van Thinh, Vietnam is now home to more than 22,000 agricultural cooperatives, 3,500 higher than the amount recorded in 2013. Many establishments have enjoyed effective operations, and each earned an average 264 million VND (11,400 USD) per year with the income of workers estimated at 40 million VND (1,730 USD) per person per year.

 

Most of the cooperatives see joining a value chain as an important factor for their sustainable development, Thinh said, adding that they have applied advanced technologies into production, and enhanced trade promotion in both domestic and foreign markets.

 

The same day, Bouasone Bouphavanh and the Lao working delegation visited several new cooperative models in northern Vinh Phuc province. –VNA