Dame Pauline Green, President of International Co-operative Alliance, visited China last month to participate in the '2012 International Year of Co-operatives - Co-operatives Boosting Sustainable Development' conference held in Beijing. Dame Pauline told delegates during the meeting (11 June) that China has made remarkable development achievements: “China’s development in recent years has been stunning. Today, the Chinese movement is working vigorously with other co-operatives, researching different forms of co-operative business that are as yet untried in China, and which might bring support and increasing prosperity to the Chinese people, particularly in the rural economy. “Or perhaps in the new technologies — community controlled renewable energy supplies, social networking or professional consortium for young newly qualified business specialists. The flexibility of the co-operative model has much to offer,” she said. “It is our hope that China might be one of those governments that could lead the arguments at global level for such a future, and for the value of a more co-operative and better-balanced global economy. We hope that we can count on China’s support as we take this further into the public and governmental domain.” Dame Pauline Green also expressed her hope that that Chinese co-operatives and ICA can co-operate in more areas in order to promote the improvement of both Chinese economy and ICA. Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu attended the conference and gave a speech on behalf of the Chinese government. He said co-operatives continue to play a major role in ensuring China’s social equity and promoting sustainable development: “Co-operatives are an important force in the development of social production forces. They promote economic development and prosperity, social fairness and justice. Through co-operatives we can achieve common prosperity. In recent years more and more co-operatives have opened the marked for farmers, by transforming decentralized management into a professional co-operative. Co-operatives have enabled China’s agricultural modernisation.” Yang Chuantang, President of All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, said the Chinese government places a strong emphasis on the development of cooperatives through the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives: “Currently, the world economy is experiencing an increasingly tortuous and hard recovery process. Under such circumstances, the development of co-operatives faces both huge opportunities and some difficulties and challenges. We should join our hands to explore a way for a sustainable development of co-operatives. “We should seize the opportunities provided by the IYC to hold a variety of promotional activities to get the widest social support for the development of co-operatives. We should advocate mutual assistance, equality and unification among co-operatives, highlight the new achievements and experience got by the co-operatives in the process of promoting the economic and social development as well as the spiritual and cultural achievements made by the co-operatives through practice, and deepen the understanding of all circles of the co-operatives,” Mr Yang Chuantang said. He also said that co-operatives must continue to be innovative in both conceptual and practical ways and work together towards achieving sustainable development.
Picture: Yang Chuantang, President of All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, presides over the meeting.
