Dr Abdul Rahman (seated centre) with Aishah (seated second left), Mohd Suandi (right) and other guests with programme participants.
LIMBANG: The co-operative (co-op) movement aims to contribute RM50 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020 in line with the National Co-operative policy goal.
Assistant Minister of Agriculture Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail said in 2016 the co-op movement contributed almost RM40 billion to the GDP.
An increase of RM10 billion was needed to achieve that goal within the next two years, so all co-ops need to collectively increase their income from five to six percent annually.
He said this when officiating at the Co-operative Human Capital Programme and Business Opportunity and Financing at Bunga Raya Hall Limbang yesterday.
Also present were the senior director of Cooperative College Malaysia (MKM), Aishah Arifin; Limbang District Officer Jamalie Busri, senior lecturer of Sarawak, MKM Mohd Suandi Mortadza; and heads of other government departments.
The Bukit Kota assemblyman wanted the Malaysian co-op movement to follow the success of the movement in New Zealand which has succeeded in contributing to the country’s revenue.
Dr Abdul Rahman said co-op’s sustainable development of human capital is a very important process.
“The co-op movement needs to champion its main purposes of establishing the co-op concern – the goal to improve the socio-economic of co-op members,” he said.
Dr Rahman said they also need to increase and enhance the roles and responsibilities of members.
“What matters most is understanding the values and principles of co-ops so its management practice will be more reliable and have high integrity,” he said.
Lawas now has 47 co-op movements and Limbang, 28, with total membership of 8,000 and revenue of RM9 million in 2016.