Lee Seong-hee, President of NongHyup, Elected as Director of the International Cooperative Alliance

"Cooperation Among Cooperatives for Enhancing Rights of Socially Vulnerable Groups in the COVID-19 Era"

Lee Seong-hee, Chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, expressing his thoughts after being elected as a director at the ICA Asia-Pacific General Assembly. (Photo by National Agricultural Cooperative Federation)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] On the 30th, Lee Seonghee, President of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF), was elected as a director with a four-year term at the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly held at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul.

The assembly was held in a hybrid format with about 500 representatives from 109 member organizations across 32 countries in Asia and the Pacific attending both online and offline.

In his remarks, President Lee pledged to actively promote cooperation among cooperatives to achieve ▲ the contribution and strengthening of roles in realizing a fair economy by cooperatives in Asian countries including Korea ▲ maintaining and developing the cooperative relationship between NACF and the ICA Asia-Pacific office ▲ enhancing the rights and interests of socially vulnerable groups through cooperatives in the COVID-19 era. In particular, as the president of the International Cooperative Agricultural Organization (ICAO), an agricultural sector committee of ICA, he promised to work on discovering post-COVID business models for small-scale family farms and agricultural cooperatives in the Asia-Pacific region.

ICA is the world's largest non-governmental organization representing cooperatives worldwide, with 320 national-level cooperatives from 110 countries as members, representing the interests of about one billion cooperative members. Since 1998, NACF has served as an ICA board member organization, an ICA Asia-Pacific board member organization, and the chair organization of ICA's agricultural sector committee (ICAO), ranking among the world's top 10 cooperatives.