Rishad Directs Cooperative Moment in the Right Direction

 The Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka Rishad Bathiudeen participated  at the International Coop Day celebration held on 2nd July in Colombo. The event was held under the patronage of the President Maithripala Sirisena at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre. Members of Lankan cooperative system, Provincial Cooperative Ministers, and Secretary to Ministry of Industry and Commerce T.M.K.B. Thennakoon were also present.

While addressing  the gathering  Rishad said Srilanka’s  first cooperative week commenced as  from 23rd June  and observed. Today we are celebrating international cooperative day. Cooperative movement was first  started in 1761 in Scotland. Modern cooperative system commenced in  1844 in England. Followed by this  Ceylon Cooperative movement developed in  1994 .We have entered   this field with the establishment of village loan  structure in central province. Now 14500 Cooperative stores are  functioning in Srilanka.  I have not allowed even a cent to be wasted in cooperative movement , he emphasized.

Sri Lanka’s Cooperative sector will be introduced the first ever National Policy, and the Cooperative University, the third such university in South Asia before the end of 2018 with the government’s support measures, he stressed.

The Sri Lanka’s cooperative system has almost 8 million members and 56% of them are women. It has reported overall value of USD 2.8 billion-that is assets of USD 1.8 billion and another USD 1 billion savings. “In fact coops are almost the third economic force in Sri Lanka” said Minister Bathiudeen and added: “Cooperatives are so strong in our retail market that I am pleased to say that according to the 2015 market survey called “Wallet Monitor” Out of all the top six supermarket brands our coop-city cooperative shop is the third ranking supermarket for purchases among Sri Lankan households.”