The cooperative movement and its roles in promoting the decent work for workers in Viet Nam

The Conference plenary is composed of four delegates from each national delegation, two representing governments, one the employers and one the workers. During the 108th (Centenary) Session, the Plenary will meet during the whole duration of the Conference, from Monday 10 June to Friday 21 June, except on Saturday 15 June.

All plenary sittings will take place in the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations and will consist of the following phases: the Conference opening sitting; a high-level section to receive the visits of heads of State and Government; the discussion of the Report of the Director-General and the report of the Chairperson of the Governing Body; the adoption of standing and technical committee reports; and the Conference closing sitting.

At the Conference, Vice president of Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance- Mr Nguyen Van Thinh said that:

Up to June 2019, there are 23,000 cooperatives in which 60% of them is agricultural cooperatives, specificially: 13,799 agricultural cooperatives; 2,676 small industry and handicraft cooperatives; 1,929 consumer and services cooperatives; 1,419 transportation cooperatives; 874 construction cooperatives; 1,182 credit cooperatives; 561 environment cooperatives and 572 others (housing, healthcare and school..)

Every year, the number of the cooperatives increases around 6,000 -7,000 newly established cooperatives. In 2018, the cooperative sector contributes to 8% of GDP, 5% of exports and 10% of the State’s budget. There are 6,5 million members, 2,5 million regular workers (in which 55% is rural workers), the cooperative sector provided 100,000 jobs for workers in rural areas in Viet Nam each year. The average income per capita is 200 USD/person/month and additional income (from husbandary, plantation, purchasing and services and others) reaches 350 USD/person/month.

Mr Nguyen Van Thinh, Vice president of Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance speaks at the Plenary of the Conference in the afternoon of 18 june 2019

Roles of Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance and cooperative sector in creating decent work: Increasing investment on human potentials; Increasing investment on working institutions;Increasing investment on decent and sustainable work.

Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance Recommendations: ILO continues to pay attention on the industrial relations in Viet Nam, builds up the indutrial relations in the cooperatives in sustainable and decent manner; Assign the high ranking officers to know about the cooperative sector in coordination with VCA to help us to revise the Law on Cooperatives (planned in 2021); Assign researchers to propose the vision of quality worker development for the cooperative sector and Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance in the coming time; Support and consult Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance to implement the value added production chains in the cooperatives in the regions and the world; Capacity building the quality of the workers to adapt the technology time 4.0.