Kunming Asia-Pacific Co-operative E-Business Summit 2015

C2C Trade

9 – 12 October

Speech by U Khin Maung Aye, Chairman

Central Cooperative Society Ltd

Honorable Madam. Wang Xia. President ACFSMC

Honorable Mr. Li Cheng Shen. Chairperson ICA-AP

Honorable Mr. Balu. Regional Director ICA-AP

Distinguished Cooperators.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

  • A Good Morning to you all.
  • At the outset, allow me to extend the Greetings of Myanma Cooperative Movement and of my own to those all present in this meeting and
  • Also, allow me to express my sincere thanks for inviting us to this Summit and according us to a warm welcome.

Mr. Chairman,

The Cooperative Movement of Myanmar, with its life span over (100) years have become an indispensable and integral part of Myanmar economy, which includes many cooperatives ranging from small to medium enterprises, involving in all sectors of economy. At present, the majority of cooperatives are established in agricultural, financial, and trading.

Today, with the ever increasing globalization and increased competition, the cooperatives are facing with the need to cooperate among cooperatives, not only locally but also across borders, so as to meet the economic needs and aspirations of members and the development of their communities. Cooperatives are being encouraged to cooperate among cooperatives locally and globally. Please allow me to recall an old reminiscence of our consumer cooperatives. In the early 50’s and to the mid 1960’s our consumers cooperatives were the most successful in the region, but that status was diminished with the nationalization done by the dictatorship.Since then, consumer cooperatives in our country have not fully recovered.

Mr. Chairman,

As we are encouraging international trading to our cooperatives, on the other hand we are also doing our best for the revival of consumer cooperatives in the country. The total cooperative trading internationally had reached about 24.25 million USD. Consumer oriented products like rice, corn, fish and handicraft accounted for 33.33% (8.012 million USD) of the total. The amount24.25 million USDis directly exported by cooperatives, but not one trade was done between cooperatives, internationally. Our Trading or Marketing cooperatives are createdmainly to implement the activities of Consumer cooperatives, for direct service delivery to the members at the primary level.

Mr. Chairman,

The main reasons behind sluggish movement of consumer cooperatives are the economy of scale and lack of cooperation among cooperatives. We also lack a national cooperative procurement agency for bulk purchases and price competitiveness.

Consumer cooperatives can survive and grow in an absolute capitalistic economy, there is no reason why consumer cooperative cannot survive and grow elsewhere. Cooperatives are a proven model which are able to preach and practice democracy as they embrace both cooperative values & ethical values. We hope consumer cooperatives can grow together with our young democracy.

C2C Trade have a big potential in Myanmar, not only locally but also internationally. But as I have had stated earlier, out of (1643) trading societies (consumers) only about 16.6% are of medium size and the rest are small and not fully functional ones. Only with the establishment of democratic government, these successful trading societies are capitalizing on the potential of trading business. In near future, Myanmar consumer cooperatives will follow suit and involved in e-commerce and e-business. We regret that we are unable to contribute more to this trading activities.

Mr. Chairman,

To achieve a certain degree of development cooperatives need help to reach a certain level, where the government can create adequate environment for cooperative business. Moreover, the auspices of ICA-AP and the cooperative heavy weights in the region can also collaborate for an effective way of achieving trade relations between cooperatives, which we look forward to. Lastly, allow me to express our heartfelt thanks once again to Mr. Li, the Organizing Committee, and Yunan Cooperatives for the welcome accorded to us and also to Mr. Balu and all the facilitators for contributing their expertise to help cooperative implement C2C e-business in our region. Myanmar cooperatives wishes for a successful conclusion of this meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Chairman

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