“Cooperative is an economic-social structure where farmers, laborers, small capital businessmen or consumers come together and manage production or distribution of consumer goods distributing profits according to capital and labour”, said Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachand while opening the 3rd Nepali Cooperative Conference.
The three-day event kicked off on Thursday and will conclude on Saturday in Kathmandu. Speaking further, the Prime Minister said the cooperative sector is evolving as a strong pillar of the economy and thus helping the country build a socialist economy in Nepal, he said.
Prachand assured that since cooperatives play an important role in building a socialist economy, the government will take all necessary measures to solve the problems faced by cooperative institutions, he underscored.
Cooperatives could lead not only to prosperity but also world peace, said President Dileep Sanghani of India’s apex co-op body NCUI. Sanghani congratulated Nepal co-operators for their efforts in mainstreaming the co-op model in the country’s economy. Sanghani also mentioned IFFCO’s contribution of Nano Urea, set to change the course of world farming.
Giving details of India’s idea of how co-ops are going to play an important role in its future, NCDC MD and NEDAC President Pankaj Bansal elaborated at length on the recent initiatives of the Indian government. Indian Prime Minister’s idea of “Sahakar se Samriddhi” reverberated in Bansal‘s speech.
From India, NCUI and IFFCO Chairman Dileepbhai Sanghani, ICA-AP President Dr Chandra Pal Singh
National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF) and the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoLMCPA) are jointly organizing the congress. The Representatives of federal, provincial and local governments, bankers, representatives of non-governmental organisations, stakeholders of concerned bodies of cooperatives and foreign guests are participating in the three-day conference being held in Kathmandu. About 1,000 people from 70 districts have participated in the conference.
In Nepal, there are altogether 30,879 cooperatives, 311 District Level Cooperative Unions, 11 Province Level Cooperative Unions, 18 Sectorial Central Level Cooperative Federations, One National Cooperative Bank and One National Cooperative Federation of Nepal as an apex level organization. Simultaneously, the cooperatives comprising 7.3 million individual members with 56 per cent women participation are providing direct jobs to at least 91301 people.
A day prior to this the board meetings Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and the Pacific (NEDAC) was also held. The meeting was hosted by National Cooperative bank Limited.
