Indian co-operators led by ICA AP President and NCUI President welcomed an Iranian delegation at the NCUI headquarters in Delhi on Thursday. The two teams of co-operators discussed, among others, ways to boost co-operative to cooperative (C2C) business ties.
Welcoming Bahman Abdollahi, President, Iran Chamber of Cooperatives (ICC), Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, ICA-AP, President said NCUI and ICC should enter into business relations in the best spirit of cooperation among Cooperatives.
Mr. Abdollahi, on his part, showed an inclination towards working with NCUI in the fields of training, sharing success stories of cooperatives and C2C business for which sub-committees may be formed.
Speaking on the occasion Chandra Pal said ICA-AP members in the region should help each other by working together in mutual areas of interest. Thanking Iranian cooperatives for their support in his election held in Seoul, he looked forward to ICC for support in the implementation of his 10-point manifesto released at the time of elections held in Seoul.
The 10-point manifesto emphasized working closely with government and cooperatives in the region for democratic and autonomous growth of cooperatives, strengthening youth capacity, promoting C2C trade among coops, etc. He highlighted the priority areas of ICA-AP like the inclusion of youth and women, innovation, digitization, etc.
Abdollahi said that Iran has a huge cooperative training infrastructure for cooperatives with a large number of trainers. A good number of training materials are provided to other countries, he said.
As a possible area of collaboration in sharing the experiences of success stories, Abdollahi looked forward to experiences of cooperative success stories in agriculture and rural development from India. He further said that cooperatives are the 2nd pillar of economic development in Iran, and 60% of the Iranian population are members of cooperatives. He said that as India has rich cooperative activities, there can be many areas of collaboration.
Dileep Sanghani, President, NCUI extended a warm welcome to the Iranian delegation and hoped that the visit of Abdollahi would strengthen the cooperative movement in both countries.
Sanghani said that with more than 8.5 lakh cooperatives, India has the largest cooperative movement in the world, which is playing an important role in economic development.
Dr. Sudhir Mahajan, NCUI’s Chief Executive highlighted various new initiatives of NCUI like NCUI Haat, starting of Skill Development Centre, initiating a study of assessing the contribution of coops in GDP, signing of MoUs with reputed organizations like German Development Corporation, Rain Matter Foundation, National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), etc.
Mahajan felt there could be many areas of collaboration between NCUI and ICC as they have a promotional role to play. Skill, education, and replication of success stories are the possible areas of collaboration, he pointed out.
Ms. Savitri Singh, Executive Director, NCUI who coordinated the program, gave a brief overview of the activities of NCUI with a focus on cooperative education and training. The Iranian delegation after the meeting visited NCUI Haat where they appreciated the uniqueness of cooperative products.
