Hire a 'master' director to help cooperative develop breakthrough

Lack of "expert" directors is a common situation of many cooperatives today.

Talking to VietNamNet about this story, Mr. Ngo Sy Dat, Director of the Institute for Agricultural Market and Institutional Research, said: “Some provinces, especially in the Mekong Delta, have sent young university graduates to lead cooperatives, but only in the position of deputy director. After about 2-3 years, when their term of office expires, they leave. This approach is not effective.”

There should be policies to support cooperatives in hiring managers. Photo: Binh Minh

According to Mr. Dat, it is necessary to develop a policy to support and encourage cooperatives to hire a director who is a "master" and capable of managing all the cooperative's activities. Doing this will create a breakthrough in the development of the cooperative.

Besides passion, today's cooperative leaders must have real vision.

“For cooperatives aiming to export Vietnamese agricultural products to the world, directors must be good at foreign languages, have rich professional experience and a variety of other soft skills such as presentation, contract negotiation, etc. For cooperatives that already have export revenue, the cost of hiring directors and 'skillful' technical staff is not too big of a problem,” said Mr. Dat.

The 2023 survey results of the Institute of Science, Technology and Environment, Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (with 200 cooperatives randomly selected from 30 provinces and cities in 8 economic regions) showed that, in terms of educational level, only 13% of cooperatives have directors with university degrees or higher, 34% with college or intermediate degrees, the remaining 53% of cooperative directors have not been trained (grade 12 or lower).

At the National Cooperative Forum in mid-April 2024, Mr. Le Duc Thinh, Director of the Department of Cooperative Economics and Rural Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) also proposed the need for policies to support cooperatives in hiring managers and business staff.

This method has been applied quite effectively in a number of units such as: Binh Thuan Dragon Fruit Cooperative; Ninh Thuan Evergreen Grape Cooperative; Don Duong Dairy Cow Cooperative; Soc Trang Evergrow Dairy Cow Cooperative; Ben Tre Green-Skin Grapefruit Cooperative, etc.

But in reality, up to now, it seems that training activities for key managers of cooperatives on management skills, skills in developing production and business plans, etc. have not yet been able to bring about the desired results.

At an event on agricultural value chain linkage that took place at the end of August 2024, Ms. Dang Thi Bich Huong, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association, reflected on the current situation:

“When surveying to support cooperatives in implementing organic production models, we found it very difficult to choose because the management capacity of the cooperative leaders as well as the cooperative management apparatus did not meet the requirements. There are still cooperative directors who have not completed any short-term training courses on management. Without leaders with sufficient management capacity, it will be very difficult for cooperatives to operate effectively,”

According to recent statistics from the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, the country currently has 31,764 cooperatives, including 20,960 agricultural cooperatives and 10,804 non-agricultural cooperatives.

For agricultural cooperatives, the average revenue is about 2.5 billion VND/year/cooperative; the average profit is 400 million VND/year; the average income of regular workers is 52 million VND/year.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/thue-giam-doc-cao-thu-de-hop-tac-xa-phat-trien-dot-pha-2317494.html