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| Sunday, 26 June 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Urgent need
to revive co-op movement mooted
by L.S.A. Wedaarachchi Attention has been drawn to the urgent need to revive the cooperative movement - the rural base islandwide Marketing and Production network in Sri Lanka. A two-day workshop attended by policymakers, activitists and high level officials of the central government and provincial councils was held recently at the National Institute of Cooperative Development (NICD) at Polgolla. It was pointed out that the cooperative movement has the ability and expertise to curb the present unhealthy situation of higher prices of essential items manipulated by some private sector traders for high profits. Most of the speakers who addressed the workshop said that there is no proper state policy on the Cooperative Movement and this situation badly affects the cooperative sector. When the Sunday Observer contacted the Commissioner of Cooperative Development G.S.L. Fonseka he said at present more than 12,000 Cooperative Societies under the purview of marketing, services and production purposes operate islandwide and that more than sixty-thousand employees are engaged in cooperative projects. He said a new Cooperative Act is being prepared by the government and one of the main purposes of the workshop at Polgolla was to seek the views of those present to update the cooperative movement with cooperative expertise and policymakers. "Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (MPCS) were set up four decades ago to supply essential items and services to the people when the country followed the closed economic policies. Although the state policies on economic, social and political spheres changed according to globalisation and other circumstances the relevant Acts or regulations on the Cooperative Movement were not revived, a spokesman for a leading cooperative society said. A state policy on the cooperative movement which completes one hundred years in Sri Lanka - next year is essential. The past practice was to turn to the Cooperative Movement when only the government had difficult occasions such as food distribution during the tsunami catastrophe or when the problem of purchasing rice arose, he said. The subject of cooperatives was given to Provincial Councils under the Provincial Councils Act. All the activities of the Provincial Cooperative Societies on marketing services and production numbering more than twelve thousand have come under the departments and the ministries of the Provincial Councils. Apex level cooperative societies numbering 13 and all-island societies have come under the purview of the Cooperative Commissioner's Department operating under the Central government. The relationship between the central government - Provincial Councils and the Cooperative Societies and the changes in the present context were also reviewed at the Polgolla NICD workshop. A Presidential Commission to study the Cooperative Movement in Sri Lanka and eventually to submit the recommendations to develop the movement was appointed in 2000. Their report has been handed over and their recommendations are being considered by the authorities for future changes in the Cooperative Movement. |
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