Cooperatives Enhance Competitiveness and Strengthen Transparency

Ministry of Economy and Finance, 4th Basic Plan for Cooperatives (2023~2025)

The government has decided to strengthen the competitiveness of cooperatives to promote growth while enhancing transparency to increase public trust.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on the 2nd that it held the 21st Cooperative Policy Deliberation Committee and approved the 4th Basic Plan for Cooperatives (2023?2025) containing these details.

An official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained, "This plan is significant as it establishes a new 10-year vision for cooperatives based on the achievements and limitations over the past decade since the enactment of the Cooperative Basic Act. It aims for mature cooperatives that develop soundly for more than 10 years based on self-sustainability and cooperatives that contribute to solving community problems through identity and transparency."

So far, cooperatives have been established in various fields, increasing from 50 in 2012 to 23,939 in 2022. The number of workers rose from 17,707 in 2016 to 47,925 in 2020, and the proportion of vulnerable groups among them also increased from 43.3% to 57.9%, contributing to job creation for vulnerable populations.

However, although the quantitative scale (number of cooperatives and members, etc.) has expanded, a significant portion remains small-scale, with 60% of cooperatives having fewer than 10 members, and growth after establishment has been insufficient.

Accordingly, the government plans to promote the strengthening of cooperatives' competitiveness as good enterprises through the basic plan. To support cooperatives by type and growth stage, it will encourage sector-specific cooperative support by specialized federations (such as medical and school federations) and strengthen support projects for growth stages. Additionally, to expand private sector market channels, it will support mutual transactions among cooperatives and strengthen connections with large corporations and others for social contribution activities.

To enhance cooperatives' role in solving community problems, the government will improve regulations and systems to enable social cooperatives to actively enter the social service sector and strengthen support such as information provision. It will also review improvement plans for mutual aid projects (social cooperatives) and mutual insurance projects (federations) to promote welfare enhancement for members and mutual aid among members.

Transparency enhancement through infrastructure improvement for cooperatives will also be pursued. To strengthen transparency in the cooperative ecosystem, the government will improve the reliability of management disclosure systems and the selection and operation methods of intermediary support organizations. It will also produce timely and accurate statistics and continuously advance the cooperative information portal to improve the reliability and accessibility of cooperative information.

The government plans to regularly monitor the progress of tasks in the 4th Basic Plan and disclose the status of key institutional improvement tasks on the cooperative information portal.

Bang Gi-seon, 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said, "Cooperatives are economic organizations that organize themselves to solve community problems and operate democratically, forming the foundation of an economy based on innovation, autonomy, solidarity, and trust. Through the 4th Basic Plan, we expect cooperatives to grow as good enterprises, contribute more to solving community problems, create synergy through the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, and enhance transparency to increase public trust."