Attending the workshop at the VNFU Headquarters were leaders of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Vietnam Government Office, relevant departments and branches at the central level, and the VNFU departments and units. The Workshop was also connected online to 63 virtual points of the FUs at the provincial level in Vietnam.


Speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the Workshop, Vice Chairwoman of the VNFU Central Committee, Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van, said that the views and directions of the Party on collective economic development and cooperatives have been affirmed in the Documents of the 13th National Party Congress; it said "Innovating and improving the operational efficiency of collective economic organizations and cooperatives should be linked with actively enhancing the benefits of members as well as improving the ability to mobilize all resources".


At the same time, at the 5th Conference of the Party Central Committee, term XIII, the Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW dated June 16, 2022, on "Continuing to innovate, develop, and enhance the efficiency of the collective economy in the new period" was promulgated, which mentioned that "The collective economy is an important economic component that must be consolidated and developed together with the state economy in order to become a solid foundation of the national economy. Collective economic development is an inevitable trend in the context of international integration that is in line with the socialist-oriented market economy".


In order to implement the Party's directions over the past years, the VNFU has always determined that participation in collective economic and cooperative development is one of the key tasks. Accordingly, the FUs at all levels have focused on building farmers’ branches and groups of common professions operating in the direction of "5 self-made" and "5 together,"  which contribute to promoting the process of participating in collective economic and cooperative development.


Up to now, there are 3.645 farmers’ branches of common profession in the whole country with 112,594 members and 36,363 farmers’ groups of common profession with 482,362 members. They play the role of action units and the bridge between the FUs at the commune level and the members, farmers that are divided into scales of village, commune, locality, and occupation. Thereby, members and farmers are gathered and attracted to participate in increasing household income, creating a basis for collective economic and cooperative development in localities.


In addition, the FUs at all levels have strengthened their focus on disseminating, mobilizing, supporting, and guiding members and farmers to build and develop collective economic forms that are suitable to each locality. Consulting activities and guiding members and farmers on the procedure to establish cooperative groups and cooperatives, which includes surveying, formulating the project, and organizing production, business, and service activities, have been regularly organized.


By the end of 2022, the FUs at all levels have mobilized and guided the establishment of 22,374 effective collective economic models, of which there are 2,398 agricultural cooperatives and 19,976 agricultural cooperative groups. Notably, there are over 700 cooperatives with products that meet OCOP standards of 3 stars or more (accounting for nearly 20%). The number of agricultural cooperative models organizing production and businesses linked with the value chain is increasing, and there are many cooperatives registering to produce products based on food safety standards and VietGAP standards.

In addition to the achieved results, the VNFU Vice Chairwoman, Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van, also said that, in fact, the scale of the cooperatives is still small, and connection and cooperation in the value chain are still weak, especially in product consumption, which is not closely linked with other economic forms.


Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van commented: “There are many reasons, and the main reason is that the role of the VNFU in developing collective economic and cooperative has not been institutionalized in the law, and the resources of FUs at all levels in charge of organizing activities in collective economic development and cooperatives are limited”.


According to the VNFU Vice Chairwoman, in order to implement Resolution No. 09/NQ-CP dated February 2, 2023 of the Government on the Action Plan for the Implementation of Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW dated June 16, 2022 of the 13th Party Central Committee, the VNFU takes responsibility for chairing and coordinating with relevant ministries, and agencies in developing the Project "Vietnam Farmers’ Union Participates in Developing Collective Economics in Agriculture until 2030" to submit to the Prime Minister.


"This is an important and practical basis for the FUs at all levels to continue to affirm the role of the VNFU in directly organizing and mobilizing the establishment of collective economic models," VNFU Vice Chairwoman Cao Xuan Thu Van affirmed.


In order to complete the Project document, VNFU Vice Chairwoman, Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van, suggested that the delegatesof the Workshop  should focus on giving comments on the following key issues: clarifying the issues of the Project and the conformity as well as concretizing the Party's direction on collective economic development; the objectives and the feasibility of specific targets in the Project; the suitability and feasibility of the tasks and solutions in order to meet the targets set out in the Project.


At the Workshop, the delegates from different virtual points actively gave comments and suggestions and shared experiences. The Workshop also received many comments and directions from experts and leaders of ministries, departments, and branches on how to develop and continue to finalize the Project.


Speaking at the Closing Ceremony of the Workshop, VNFU Vice Chairwoman Cao Xuan Thu Van thanked and appreciated the honest and quality comments of experts, representatives of ministries, governmental departments, and branches. She highly appreciated the responsible working spirit, the enthusiasm of the delegates of the FUs at the provincial level, and the preparation of the Project Editting Committee, the secretariat of the Workshop, as well as the participants from virtual points.

Based on the comments given at the Workshop, Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van, VNFU Vice Chairwoman, 1^st Deputy Head of the Project Drafting Committee, suggested that the Project Editting Committee will receive the comments to formulate and complete the draft Project, which should be logical, professional, and trustworthy.She suggested that the FUs at the provincial level continue to contribute ideas to finalize the draft Project "Vietnam Farmers’ Union Participates in Developing Collective Economics in Agriculture until 2030," which will be submitted to the Prime Minister.