Malaysia has 14,975 registered cooperatives with combined income of RM22.4bil

KOTA KINABALU: There are 14,975 cooperatives in the country which generate a combined income of RM22.4bil, says Ewon Benedick.

The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister said with a total membership of over seven million, the contributions of the cooperatives movement through the collection of share capital and fees, was as much as RM16.5bil with asset generation amounting to RM156.2bil.

"The cooperatives movement has developed rapidly and managed to achieve various successes. I like to recall, in 1922 there were only 11 cooperatives registered with a membership of 825 people, but today, the number of cooperatives in this country has soared," he said.

"In the beginning, the main aim of the cooperatives movement was to solve the issues of rural farmers who were oppressed by middlemen under the padi value chain system as well as the problem of debts among civil servants in the city.

"Now the cooperative movement has ventured into the country's main economic sectors such as financial services, wholesale and retail, agriculture, property development and industrial development as well as tourism, personal care and health. What is more, the cooperative sector is the third biggest contributor to the national economy after the government and private sector," he said when officiating at 2023 Cooperative Promotion programme (Maskop), here on Saturday (Feb 18), which was also attended by Cooperative Societies Commission of Malaysia executive chairman Rusli Jaafar.

Elaborating further, Ewon said on realising how important the cooperatives sector is in helping to eradicate poverty and build the community's economy, the ministry will continue to improve the public's understanding of the function and concept of cooperatives through Maskop.

"The Maskop programme represents one of the initiatives outlined in the Malaysian Cooperatives Transformation Plan 2021-2025. Its main goal is to foster the spirit of cooperatives while increasing the public's knowledge including the public and private sectors related to cooperatives.

"At the same time, the programme is also a platform to make known the services and products offered by cooperative movements to the public.

"Through this programme, the ministry hopes to promote the cultivating cooperatives among all levels of society as well as cooperatives a way of life in facing the challenges of high costs of living," he added. – Bernama