Sheikh Umar Ali (foremost) says there are 1,370 cooperatives in Johor, and the number is expected to increase to 2,040 by the 2021.
ISKANDAR PUTERI: Johor aims to increase the revenue of cooperatives in the state to RM1.33bil by the year 2021, from RM887.36mil now.
State Entrepreneur Development, Cooperative, Creative Economy and Information Committee chairman Sheikh Umar Ali said this could be achieved as there had been an increase in the number of cooperatives in the state.
He said at the end of 2017, there were 1,370 cooperatives in Johor, and the number was expected to increase to 2,040 by the year 2021.
Sheikh Umar said cooperative membership was also expected to reach 518,056 within the next three years, from 465,519 members last year.
Correspondingly, shares and fees were expected to increase from RM305.07mil in 2017 to RM358.07mil by 2021.
“The state government has implemented several initiatives to boost the earnings of cooperatives, with more plans in the pipeline," he said.
Sheikh Umar was replying to a question from Datuk Zahari Sarip (BN-Buluh Kasap) on the state government's efforts to boost cooperative development in the short and long-term.
He said the state government had been working closely with the local branch of the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia on the Johor Cooperative Development Strategic Plan 2017-2021.
Sheikh Umar said the plan focused on six core sectors, namely financial services; retail and wholesale; real estate and construction industry; tourism; healthcare; agriculture, agro-based industry and plantation.
“We will also assist cooperatives to expand their business portfolios by allocating grants up to RM300,000 for each cooperative," he said.
Sheikh Umar said in 2015 a total of 17 cooperatives received grants worth RM500,000; whereas, in 2016, nine cooperatives received RM460,000, while 17 cooperatives received RM960,000 in 2017.
He said 71 cooperatives in Johor received RM91.37mil in loans for working capital from 2015 to 2017, with loan amounts up to RM10mil with a 20-year payment term.
Twenty-five cooperatives had received RM15.34mil in working capital loans in 2015, 33 (RM74.39mil) in 2016 and 13 (RM1.64mil) in 2017.
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