ICA A-P Regional Assembly kicks off to a grand start

A grand inauguration of the 12th Regional Assembly of ICA-Asia-Pacific and the 9th Asia Pacific Cooperative Forum took place Thursday with two Union Ministers and cooperators of 28 nations in attendance. The who’s who of Indian cooperatives from Chandra Pal Singh Yadav to IFFCO MD Dr US Awasthi, from Aditya Yadav to Sunil Singh, from Pramod Singh to Lakhan Lal Sahu- you name any and they were there.

Delegates were neatly seated in a row carrying the placard of their respective countries presenting a scene of a truly international event. Welcoming the guests NCUI President and host of the show said we are very happy as it is after two decades that India is hosting the Assembly. Naming individually each guest he extolled their achievements.

While he named Radha Mohan Singh as the epitome of honesty, he referred to Suresh Prabhu another Union Minister present in the show as a born cooperator. He lauded IFFCO MD Dr Awasthi as a man well-known worldwide for his contributions. And he complemented ICA A-P President for furthering the cooperative movement in his tenure in the region.

Speaking on the occasion Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said the Govt wants to see the Indian cooperative model develop as a successful model for the Asia Pacific Region. He further said to achieve the objectives of UN Sustainable Agenda for 2030 cooperatives should contribute their mite in realizing them. He also said cooperatives through information technology and effective digital media must play an important role in tackling corruption.

The ICA-AP Regional Assembly meeting with the theme on sustainable development opened today in New Delhi with the participation of 250 foreign delegates from countries like China , Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Iran, Sri Lanka etc. ICA-AP (www.ica-ap.coop) is the regional office of ICA (headquarters in Geneva www.ica.coop) based in Delhi.

Singh further said cooperatives are the best institutions to bridge the gap between rich and poor. He also said it is important to involve the youth in cooperatives considering India has a big youth population. He further said it is important to publicize success stories of cooperatives to the masses so that they have a positive image of cooperatives.

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Railways speaking on the occasion said the cooperative model is the best model for socio-economic change based on people’s participation and this model should be popularized globally as the limitations of the trickle down growth approach are apparent. He further said the Asian region will be a game changer in the times to come and here cooperatives with their strong sustainable character can play an important role in which the benefits of development can percolate down to the people. Prabhu repeatedly referred to the IFFCO model as an example of a successful co-op all through his speech.

Li Chensheng President ICA-AP speaking on the occasion said innovation, preserving cooperative values and strengthening their democratic character are the biggest challenges before the cooperative movement in the Asia Pacific Region. He thanked NCUI for hosting this event.

Dr Chandrapal Singh, President NCUI on the occasion highlighted the achievements of the cooperative movement in India. He also said the cooperative movement in Asia has become strong with a number of achievements and our cooperative model can be a good example for other regions of the world.

IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi while presenting IFFCO as the successful model of cooperative also touched upon the issue of demonetization and felt it would go a long way in cleansing cooperatives as well. He also showed a short film of IFFCO which was received with a thunderous applause by the audience.

On this occasion, Indian Cooperative Movement – A Statistical Profile was released revealing there are 8 lakh cooperative societies with 400 million members.

Balu Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP proposed a vote of thanks.