Govt to open new sectors for cooperatives
KATHMANDU, MAR 15:
The government is planning to open 17 sectors for cooperative investment.
National Cooperatives Policy draft prepared by Department of Cooperatives has focused industrialisation and commercialisation of agriculture sector as the investment avenues for the cooperatives. The new policy design has also planned to shift the current saving and credit cooperatives to industrial investment cooperative.
“The new policy will open doors to cooperatives to invest in industrial sector,” said registrar of the department Kedar Neupane.
According to the draft policy, cooperative could be opened in 17 sectors including agriculture, industries, forest-based industry, hospitals, pharmacies, tourism, insurance, and transport.
The cooperatives have also not initiated any big industries in joint investment of cooperatives.
Currently, some cooperatives have been investing in small and medium scale industries and others are hugely in the land that has not only ballooned the land price but also poured the resources into unproductive sector forcing some of the cooperatives to flee due to shortage of cash.
Cooperatives have been investing in non-productive sector like real estates, housing and hire purchase, he said, adding that big cooperatives in Kathmandu have been facing financial problem due to excessive investment in land and housing.
According to an estimate, around Rs 6.25 billion deposit of poor people in the cooperatives is in risk. Weak monitoring mechanism has been blamed for the failure of cooperatives.
The new draft policy has suggested a monitoring mechanism at the ministry, department and division level. Adequate human resources is also a must for regulating cooperatives, it said in the draft policy paper. Around 27,000 cooperatives are in operation across the country. Among them 11,000 saving and credit cooperatives, mostly operated in urban or sub-urban areas. Saving and Credit cooperatives have around Rs 140 billion deposit from the lower and lower middle class people.
Though, some three million people have been engaged in cooperative movement and has provided jobs to over 500,000 people, the mission drift of cooperatives has worsened the image of cooperatives in the country.
The draft policy has also advised the government to establish cooperatives focal points in National Planning Commission and different ministries or agencies like agriculture, health, industry, education, tourism, energy, irrigation, local development, youth development and employment. “The department aims at alleviating poverty, commercialise agriculture sector and traditional arts and crafts,” it reads. “Agriculture cooperatives are believed to be the force for the change of substantive agriculture into commercialise ones.”
Interim constitution of the country has identified cooperatives as the third pillar of economy after public and private sector.
“The full-fledged implementation of the policy could bring real change in the cooperative sector,” Neupane said, adding that it will be the third pillar in the real sense, after the draft policy implementation.
Source: THT
