Every cooperative society is an economic unit. It focuses on the social and financial success of an enterprise, with the goal of having positive impact in the society due to its visible, accountable and transparent activities. There is no scope for a cooperative society to hide its margin and areas of operation, provided the members are honest and the authorities audit its functions annually.

The commitments and activities of cooperative societies, small or big, must maintain business ethics, stakeholders' interests, consumers' rights, address issues like health and safety, environmental protection, and respect national interest and human rights.

Cooperatives can maintain balance in stabilizing market prices, continue the supply chain, and tackle the hoarders in critical times of scarcity of essential supplies.

These are the values of cooperative societies, because of which they have survived against stiff competition from NGOs.

The cooperative movement in what is now Bangladesh started in the year 1904. Around 77 lakhs people are now involved as members of cooperatives. There are at least 1 lakh 48 thousand cooperative societies actively operating in the country at present, with assistance from the government.

These cooperatives are working in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, livestock, housing, micro-credit operation, milk production, employees saving societies, credit societies etc.

The president of the International Cooperatives Alliance (ICA), Mr. Ivano Barberini, observed during the centenary celebration: "I greatly value the changes and the efforts made by Bangladesh Cooperative Movement to increase the social visibility of cooperatives, thus promoting and facilitating the achievement of a better world through the cooperative movement."

The cooperative movement brings together over 800 million people round the world. The United Nations estimated that the livelihood of nearly 3 billion people, or half of the world population, was made secure by cooperative enterprises.

These cooperative enterprises continue to play significant economic and social roles in their communities. It appears from the statistics revealed by the ICA that 1 in 3 people in Canada, Japan, Norway, and 1 in 4 people in USA and Germany, are directly involved with cooperative societies. In China, 180 million, India 236 million, Malaysia 5.4 million, UK 9.8 million people are members of cooperative societies.

In Belgium, there were 29,993 cooperative societies in 2001, and in Finland S- Group has a membership of 1,468,572 individuals, which represents 62% of Finnish households. In Malaysia, 5.5 millions people, or 20% of the population, are members of the cooperatives, whereas 50% of the total population of Singapore are members of cooperatives.

All these cooperative societies are playing a significant role and contributing remarkably to the national economies. In Belgium, cooperative pharmacies have a market share of 19.5%. In Brazil, cooperatives are responsible for 40% of the agricultural GDP and 6% of the total agro-business exports.

Canadian maple sugar cooperatives produce 35% of the world's maple sugar. In Japan, the agricultural cooperative reports output of $ 90 million, with 91% of all Japanese farmers in membership. In Kenya, cooperatives are responsible for 45% of GDP and 31% of the national savings and deposits. They have 70% of the coffee market, 76% diary, 90% pyrethrum and 95%of cotton.

In Korea, agricultural cooperatives have a membership of over 2 million farmers (90% of all farmers) and an out put of $ 11 billion. The Korean Fisheries Cooperatives also report a market share of 71%. In Norway, dairy cooperatives are responsible for 95% of the milk production.

Besides, cooperatives provide over 100 million jobs around the world, 20 % more than multinational enterprises. In Canada, cooperatives and credit unions employ over 1,60,000 people.

The Dejardians movement (savings and credit cooperatives) is the largest employer in the province of Quebec. In France, 21,000 cooperatives provide jobs to 7,00,000 people, in Germany about 8106 cooperatives provides jobs for 440000 people, and in Italy 70400 co-operatives societies employed nearly 1 million people in 2005. 250,000 people are employed in cooperative societies in Kenya.

All this statistical information of developed countries has been given to show how they also patronize the cooperative movement, considering their contributions in the economic growth, generating of opportunities for employment, and discharging of social responsibilities.

Unfortunately, the budget of 2007-2008 did not indicate any fiscal measure nor mention the contribution of cooperatives, not to speak of any financial allocation in any way. The poverty reduction strategy paper, "Unlocking the Potential: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction," has been extended upto June 2008, and contains few indications about cooperatives.

This NSAPR is being implemented through the budget, thus requiring a vision for the cooperatives to be utilized for national development. Around Tk 550 crore has been earmarked for NGOs, which might be utilized through PKSF, and could be partly be shared with cooperatives department.

Equally, around Tk 100 crore could be allocated to the cooperative department to provide seed money to the cooperative societies working in agro marketing, IT application, or any other innovative area consistent with poverty reduction and target of millennium development goals. An amount of Tk150, allocated for agro-based industries, could be shared with the Bangladesh Cooperative Bank Ltd also.

I have indicated a few measures to identify the areas for encouraging the cooperative movement in Bangladesh. It is true, cooperatives can contribute substantially in stabilizing prices of essential commodities, and also help elimination of corruption in the market economy as whole.

Dhiraj Kumar Nath is a freelance contributor.