Malaysia hosts global cooperative conference
MALAYSIA plays host to the Global Conference and General Assembly of the International Co-operative Alliance 2017 (ICAKL 2017) for the first time today.
Held from Nov 13 to 19, this edition welcomes more than 1,000 representatives from 98 countries including the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, South Africa, Canada, Kiribati, Gabon and Russia.
Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Berhad (Angkasa) president Datuk Abdul Fattah Abdullah said keynote speakers for the conference are First Female
Prime Minister of Norway and Deputy Chair of Elders Gro Harlem Brundtland and Economist and Member of World Economic Forum Linda Yueh.
Themed “Cooperatives: Putting people at the centre of development”, the conference focuses on four topics; learn, experiment, network and explore.
Fattah said Angkasa wants cooperatives to establish relationships between the governments, youth development, cooperatives to cooperatives business (C2C) as well as create cooperatives in colleges and educational institutions.
“Malaysia is honoured to have been chosen to host this renowned conference via competitive bidding.
“We started campaigning for this since 2013 in Cancun, Mexico and managed to beat our competitors, Australia, New Zealand and Iran.
“Malaysia is the second Muslim nation to host the event in the world after Turkey two years ago,” he said.
Fattah said there will be 35 working papers up for discussion during the conference on topics such as housing, healthcare, education, environment as well as refugees and foreign workers.
He said it will be the first time for the cooperative alliance to speak on the issue of refugees and foreign workers, adding that it has been a “hot topic” for the past few years following the massive refugee crisis happening worldwide.
“On the topic of the refugees and foreign workers, we will look at how the cooperatives can help them, how they can be monitored and cared for by the working committee in relations to the country’s regulations and policies.
“This is just one of the many sectors and topics that will be discussed.
“The things discussed during the conference will be made into a resolution and will be upheld by all the countries and to the United Nations,” he said.
The alliance’s General Assembly for the presidential and board member’s election will be held on Nov 17.
The election happens every four years, where members will vote for a new president and 15 new board members.
Fattah said it will be a tight fight between Ariel Guarco from Argentina’s Cooperative Federation of the Argentine Republic and Yogeshwar Krishna from Fiji’s Nasinu Land Purchase and Housing Cooperative Limited.
Malaysia’s Datuk Kamarudin Ismail, who is also Angkasa’s vice-president, is one of the 26 candidates vying for a seat on the board.
Kamarudin said he strongly believes that the sustainability of future cooperative not only in Malaysia but in other countries, begins from youth at school level. After serving 30 years as an educator, he joined the Education Ministry as the Senior Assistant director and throughout his 13-year tenure, he managed to become the person behind many changes in terms of how school cooperatives should be operated.
Kamarudin’s iniative in making school operatives a member of Angkasa allowed school operatives to receive numerous benefits such as special grants to develop their business.
“Kamarudin’s never ending spirit in developing school cooperatives in Malaysia has been widely recognised in the country, which has led to other nations such as Japan, South Korea, Timor Leste, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, Bangladesh, Mauritius to take notice and invite him to present papers and hold workshops about school cooperatives,” Fattah said.
He also leads Angkasa’s retail and wholesale sector, which assist cooperatives to develop and market their products and services through their special programme “100 Product Champion”. These products have not only made it to the shelves of local supermarkets but also exported to Brunei and Singapore.
ICAKL 2017 will also host the inaugural Asean Cooperative Organisation Annual Conference on Nov 19 with veteran politician and former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz as the keynote speaker.
Fattah said this seminar is to introduce the concept of Asean Economic Community, to engage with the community members and increase cooperative business movements between.
Themed “AEC and Asean Regional Cooperative — The Next Imperative”, among the speakers include Standards Malaysia director-general Datuk Fadilah Baharin, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) chief executive officer Dr Mohd Shahreen Zainooreen Madros as well as representatives from Malaysian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce and UMW Technology SB.