The Mozambican delegation works with the Collage of Management for Agriculture and Rural Development 2 (Photo: SOCODEVI)

Hanoi (VNA) - A delegation from Mozambique hasvisited Vietnam to learn about the country’s cooperative development.

During the February 19-24 study tour, they met with officials fromthe Embassy of Canada in Hanoi, the Ministry of Planning & Investment, theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other stakeholders.

Vietnam shared with the Mozambican delegation experiencesand lessons learned over the years on the path of developing its cooperativeeconomy.

ꦦ “Oneof the most valuable lessons on the cooperative development that we want toshare with Mozambique is that we should raise awareness of the society andstate management agencies about the cooperative roles. Once the people realizethe important roles of cooperatives as well as the benefits of joiningcooperatives, they will voluntarily join. Only then will the development of thecooperative economy be truly sustainable and effective,” said Phung Quoc Chi, Director ofCooperative Development Department, the Ministry of Planning & Investment.

The Mozambican delegation visits an eco-tourism cooperative (Photo: SOCODEVI)

Ledby SOCODEVI - a Canadian NGO funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the Mozambicandelegation included representatives of the Canadian High Commission inMozambique, Mozambican ministries such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade,the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Gender, Children and SocialAction, and representatives of SOCODEVI.

Thevisit to Vietnam took place in the context that the GAC-funded and SOCODEVI-implementedinitiative on cooperative development, namely Vietnam Cooperative EnterpriseDevelopment (VCED) has just finished last year. Vietnam’s cooperatives havemade significant progress since Canadian experts first came in 2002 to supportthe cooperative movement in the country under a GAC-funded andSOCODEVI-implemented project named Improved Rural Livelihood project.

“The Government of Canada, throughSOCODEVI, has made significant contributions to Vietnam's agriculturalindustry, especially in areas such as farmer organization, cooperativedevelopment, and developing the agri-food sector. These efforts contribute topolicy advice, law-making related to cooperative development, and farmerorganizations,” saidLe Duc Thinh, Director of Department of Economic Cooperation and RuralDevelopment under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

𝔍 “We hope that the Government of Canada and SOCODEVI will continue to supportVietnam on the way of developing collective economy as well as building farmerorganizations, and continuing to share with us the experience of developingcooperative models from countries around the world, especially Canadian models,”he said.

The Mozambican delegation visits Tan Huong Tea Cooperative in Thai Nguyen province (Photo: SOCODEVI)

Duringthe week-long business trip, the Mozambican delegation had a meeting with theVietnam Cooperative Alliance, and visited a number of new-model cooperativessuch as Rach Lop Cooperative in Tra Vinh province and that were establishedwith Canadian support such as Tan Huong Tea Cooperative in Thai Nguyen province,Ben Tre Green Pomelo Cooperative, Evergreen Ninh Thuan Grape Cooperative.

Especially,to learn from experience on training high-level human resources forcooperatives, the delegation met with the Collage of Management for Agricultureand Rural Development 2 (CMARD2), which is a long-time partner of SOCODEVI inVietnam and contributed a large part to organizing this study tour.

“Quality human resource is one ofthe sustainable success factors of cooperatives. Training programs need to bedesigned in harmony between theory and practice. The training content needs tobe tied to the needs and roles of stakeholders such as the Board of Directors,Supervisory Board, or cooperative members,” said Nguyen Trung Dong, Rector of CMARD2.

“We congratulate Vietnam on havingstrong Government support for the collective economy. It is good to know thatthe Vietnamese Government has a strategic plan and a budget to ensure thesustainable development of this economic sector,” said Júlia Fernando, Executive Directorof Mozambican Association for the Promotion of Modern Cooperativism.

𝐆 “I think that Mozambique can learn a lot fromVietnam, such as how to immerse all government agencies in the concept ofcooperativism, and how to get the whole society involved in cooperative economydevelopment. In that way, we can eradicate poverty, thereby developingsustainable socio-economic development”, he added./.