Legal system, governance structure of co-ops will be reviewed, says Noh Omar

KUALA LUMPUR: The legal system and the cooperatives governance structure will be reviewed so that the cooperatives movement is in line with current developments and needs, says Tan Sri Noh Omar.

The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister said the review was to ensure that the cooperatives movement could grow and move forward towards achieving the country’s socioeconomic development objectives.

"The capability and the capacity of the relevant cooperatives agencies especially the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (SKM) and the Cooperative Institute of Malaysia (IKMa) will be empowered to encourage the development of the cooperatives movement to produce more entrepreneurs," he said during his speech at the launching of the 100 years celebration of the co-operative movement on Saturday (Feb 12).

The Ministry in collaboration with SKM organised the cooperative 100 years celebration ceremony themed "Cooperatives Movement, Developing Keluarga Malaysia".

Also in attendance were the Ministry's Deputy Minister Datuk Muslimin Yahaya and Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Bhd (Angkasa) Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Fattah Abdullah.

The celebrations were the government’s recognition of the cooperatives movement that had contributed significantly to the country’s socioeconomic development as well as to showcase the 100 years existence of the cooperatives movement.

During a press conference after the event, Noh said legal reviews would be conducted as there must be checks and balances as currently the position of the president and the executive were held by the same person.

"That is why we must have checks and balances, so this needs to be separated," he said.

With the launch of the Malaysian Cooperative Transformation Plan 2021-2025 (TransKoM) last year, he also said that they also wanted to ensure that there were no outdated laws or legal constraints as they embarked on this campaign.

Separately, with the rising cost of living, Noh said the government would launch the “Program Pembangunan Sektor Pemborongan dan Peruncitan Koperasi” to help reduce the prices of goods and the gap between the suppliers, manufacturers, and consumers by reducing the involvement of intermediaries.

"Under this programme, the Ministry will rebrand the cooperative stores to Coopmart so that it would be more attractive.

"The government targets to establish more than 500 Coopmarts throughout Malaysia that will be operated by various cooperatives especially in rural areas and the areas where the majority are B40 residents," he said.

Noh added that they are targeting to create a Coopmart in every state assembly seat.

"It will be implemented at housing areas such as the people's housing projects (PPR) and low cost housing areas. This is our target," he said.

Noh also noted that there are currently 14,657 cooperatives that have been established to-date with a total of 6.5 million members.

He added that the contribution of the cooperatives movement through shares capital raising and fees amounted to RM15.8bil with an asset generation of RM150.5bil, and a turnover of RM41.5bil.