Cooperative sector national policy reaches Cabinet

After a decade of country-wide efforts involving eight million members, the first-ever national policy for Sri Lanka’s historic cooperative sector has finally arrived at Cabinet level for approval, a communiqué from the Industry and Commerce Ministry said. 

Once the approval by the Cabinet of Ministers for the National Cooperative Policy (NCP) submitted by Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen is granted, the NCP will become the sole framework of reference and guidebook for Sri Lanka’s cooperative sector way forward. 

“Among the main themes of the new NCP are modernising the cooperative sector on par with other cooperative movements in the world, bringing in ICT, introducing self-financing, good governance, financial and credit methods, involving more youth and women in the sector’s next stage and simplifying the legal set up for the sector to be more viable,” the ministry communiqué said. 

The 111-year-old Sri Lankan cooperative sector employs 46000 and packs a membership total of a little over eight million. 

The Lankan cooperatives assets and savings base is estimated at Rs.418.4 billion (US $ 2.8 billion). 

At present, there are 14454 cooperatives active across Sri Lanka’s nine provinces.

The policy has been finally approved this year by the Cooperative Ministers of all Provincial Councils, District Cooperative Councils and regional cooperative officials (representing their eight million members) unanimously.  This go-ahead by the entire Lankan cooperative sector is the first such unanimous approval given by this sector for the NCP, the work of which began way back in 2008 and subsequently undergoing multiple revisions under different governments. 

The draft policy formulated with the assistance from the International Labour Organisation will be handed over to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval.