The Present Status of Consumer Co-operatives in Asia and the Pacific: 2012

The Present Status of Consumer Co-operatives in Asia and the Pacific: 2012

International Co-operative Alliance Asia and Pacific

 Background and Introduction (pdf )

1. An ad-hoc committee was constituted by the ICA Committee on Consumer Cooperationfor Asia and the Pacific (hereinafter ICA-AP Consumer Committee) in its 43rd meeting held in Pune, India in December 2009. The Ad-hoc Committee was composed of Mr. Virendra Singh as the Chairman [Chairman of National Co-operative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF, India)], a representative each from Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union (JCCU, Japan) and NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Ltd. (Singapore) as members. The objectives of the Ad-hoc Committee were to collect information on the working of the consumer co-operatives in the Asia-Pacific region and prepare a status paper on the same for further study and action where needed.
2. In the next meeting of the ICA-AP Consumer Committee held at Beijing on 2nd September 2010, the terms of references and countries for the proposed study were identified as follows:

Main terms of reference/contents of study

• Structure & administrative set-up
• Membership details
• Governing laws
• Nature of activity
• Volume of business
• Problem areas/constraints
• Possible solutions to problems and work programme for future.
• Govt. policy/support to the Cons. Co-ops. etc

Countries Selected  (pdf )

1. India pdf	7. Myanmar pdf
2. Indonesia pdf	8. Philippines pdf
3. Iran pdf	9. Singapore pdf
4. Japan pdf	10. Sri Lanka pdf
5. Korea pdf	11. Thailand pdf
6. Malaysia pdf	12. Vietnam pdf

(Study on Kuwait was subsequently kept pending)

3. The purpose of the study was:
   • To use the inputs of successful countries to improve the working of the societies where they would need assistance.
   • To prepare suitable plan of action including short-term and long-term work programme for the consumer co-ops in different countries.
4. In the first meeting of the Ad-hoc committee held in Beijing on 2nd September 2010 it was decided that:
   • Mr. T.T. Adhikari ex-Managing Director NCCF, (India) and presently with the Delhi State Consumers Co-operative Federation Ltd, (India) will be the data analyst/ editor for this assignment and he along with Ms. Kanako Miyazawa, Secretary of the ICA-AP Consumer Committee will conduct the studies and prepare the reports.
   • The collected data needed to be studied to analyse the present state of consumer cooperatives.
   • To breakdown the consumer co-operatives in Asia to some categories.
   • To analyse the strength and weaknesses of the consumer co-operatives
   • To make practical proposals to the committee for further development of consumer co-operatives in Asia.
5. In the 2nd meeting of the ad-hoc committee held at HCM city, Vietnam on the 8th September 2011 modalities of the study and preparation of reports were discussed and finalised.
6. The reports have been compiled based on the-spot-study visits, collection of data, information provided by the apex bodies of consumer cooperatives in the respective countries/co-operative organizations, annual reports, information available from the published materials and web-sites. We are grateful to the concerned federations, societies and other co-operative organizations in different countries for their cooperation, assistance and support which were useful in compiling these reports.
7. This is rather a voluminous work undertaken within a limited period of time. We hope the compiled information will provide useful inputs for taking corrective steps where necessary and making future work programme for the consumer co-operatives in different countries.