KUALA LUMPUR: The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry (KPDNKK) will increase the capacity of cooperatives in a bid to develop a Co-op City and rural cooperatives across the country.
Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said, for a start, the Malaysian Cooperatives Commission had secured cooperation from the Sarawak government to develop the two entities in the state.
“The Sarawak government has given us a few acres of land for the purpose and this has enabled us to work closely with cooperatives across the state and also to run numerous businesses through the existing cooperatives in those areas,” he told a press conference after chairing the first meeting of the National Cooperatives Consultative Council here yesterday.
However, he said the development plan would take some time and would be done according to the law.
Besides, Hamzah said the ministry was also planning to combine all credit cooperatives in the country so that they would have bigger capacity and capital to strengthen their capability to take up business loans through the credits they provided,
“We will also prepare a new standard procedures and regulations for agents appointed by credit cooperatives for marketing purposes,” he said, adding that the Cooperatives Act Bill to be tabled in Parliament in July would also include models adopted by developed countries, such as United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and South Korea. — Bernama