By MALUM NALU
Cooperative
societies are in urgent need of government funding, according to Registrar of
Cooperative Societies of PNG Joseph Ingipa.
This is
unlike the past when cooperative societies were very effective in Papua New
Guinea.
Ingipa
said for this year, the government had allocated K3 million, of which K400, 000
had been set aside as seed capital.
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| Registrar of Cooperative Societies of PNG Joseph Ingipa |
This
K400, 000 had been split up with K100, 000 going to each of the four regions.
Ingipa
said this on Wednesday as Commerce and Industry Minister, Charles Abel, gave K50,
000 to Ungai-Bena MP Benny Allan for the Eastern Highlands Coffee Cooperative
Society.
Both
Abel and Allan acknowledged that cooperative societies needed more assistance
from the government.
“This K3
million is not enough,” Allan said when receiving the K50, 000 from Abel.
“We
should put more money into cooperatives.
“We
already have an Eastern Highlands Coffee Growers’ Cooperative to get our coffee
growers together.
“This
money will be used to assist coffee growers of Eastern Highlands.”
The
co-operative societies movement was introduced to PNG in 1947, and had worked
successfully from the 1950s to the early 1970s, bringing goods and services closer
to the rural areas, mobilising people and enabling them to undertake
socio-economic activities, thus generating income to sustain their livelihood.
Co-operative
societies then were developed under the four-tier level structure, namely the
primary, district (association), regional (union), and national (federation)
that affiliated to the international body.
There
were four types of co-operative societies developed then and operated in the
country, which were: consumer co-operative, marketing co-operative, producers
co-operative and credit co-operative.
The
formation of these societies then were centered on developing a trade network
for distribution of import goods, collection of raw materials for export and
mobilising of funds for new socio-economic activities.
The
movement became dysfunctional after the Co-operative Societies Ordinance (1965)
was repealed by the then House of Assembly in 1974.
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