KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Bhd (Angkasa) expects the cooperative (co-op) sector to continue to grow rapidly with improvements made to the Cooperative Societies Act 1993 (Act 502).
Chairman Datuk Abdul Fattah Abdullah said the Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill 2020, which was passed during the Third Term of the 14th Parliament, which recently adjourned sine die, is now in the process of being presented to the Dewan Rakyat for approval.
“Upon the Senate’s approval, the amendment can be gazetted and the new laws can be implemented,” he told the media at a ceremony to handover aids to members of Koperasi Sindrom Down Malaysia Bhd under the corporate social responsibility Programme of Coopcare Angkasa Prihatin COVID-19 here, today.
Abdul Fattah said the amendments made included allowing the setting up of a cooperative with a membership of at least 20 people compared to 50 currently and the board members of a cooperative is reduced from six persons to only three.
“I believe by reducing the number of members to set up a cooperative can encourage the opening of more cooperatives,” he said, adding that this is because Malaysia has strict conditions compared to other countries for the establishment of a cooperative.
“I hope more amendments to the Cooperative Societies Act 1993 can be made in the future,” he said, adding that Angkasa had proposed 18 clauses to be amended to the government but only nine were accepted.
“There are nine more clauses that we hope can be amended and I agree with the opinion of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar who said that we need to make more comprehensive amendments.
“This is because since this Act was enforced, no comprehensive amendments have been implemented. This is important to keep pace with business development today,” he said.
Apart from that, he said the Malaysian Cooperative Transformation Plan (Transkom), which will be launched soon, outlined the cooperative sector revenue contribution target of RM60 billion in 2025 and RM100 billion by 2030.
Currently, the cooperative sector’s revenue contribution is RM45.7 billion and this means that the sector needs to increase its revenue by RM5 billion a year to achieve the target.
“Therefore, Angkasa and its cooperatives are always striving to explore new areas of business and that is why Angkasa is taking the initiative to work with strategic partners to apply for a digital bank licence,” he added.
— Bernama
