Cooperatives which have grown in importance for Da Nang’s economy are in need of financial and professional support to boost digital transformation in a bid to improve their production and business performance.

Cooperatives in Da Nang are in need of both financial and professional support to promote digital transformation, with a focus on e-commerce to sell products. In photo: Production activities are seen at the An Khe Bamboo and Rattan Cooperative in Thanh Khe District. Photo: HOANG HIEP

It is estimated that, by late 2021, there will be a total of 146 cooperatives, 2 cooperative unions and 274 cooperative groups in Da Nang, of which 6 cooperatives were established in the first 6 months of this year, and 25 ones have ceased operations but have yet to complete dissolution procedures, according to recent statistics released by the municipal Department of Planning and Investment.

The operating cooperatives in the city have a total registered charter capital of VND259.9 billion. All of them possess a sum of 9,420 members, and create jobs for 15,085 people. The per capita monthly income of cooperatives’ members and employees is averaged at VND4.5 million.

Most recently, most of cooperatives citywide have faced many difficulties during digital transformation process.

Specifically, there is a shortage of uniform guidance from the national government, and harmonious coordination between relevant ministries. For example, some documents have not kept up with new technology trends, resulting in affecting the application of 4.0 technology, whilst others issued by central ministries and branches have yet to prove effective.

Most notably, the greatest barrier to digital transformation is that the majority of cooperatives in the city are small scale, hereby possessing outdated technologies and lacking finance and high-quality human resources to carry out digital transformation. Also, they have yet to apply information technology or integrate digital transformation in their production and business plans, as well as approach much to the digital transformation trend and to digital skills, especially e-commerce skills.

In addition, staff at cooperatives are not proficient in the use of technology, as well as are in lack of skills in accessing information sources and State-issued digital transformation support policies.

Moreover, cooperatives have not yet built their own brand names, thus failing to raise their competitiveness in both domestic and overseas markets. Also, there are very few support programmes for local cooperatives in digital transformation.

In an effort to help cooperatives solve their problems, the Da Nang Department of Planning and Investment has just requested the Ministry of Planning and Investment to give opinions to the Ministry of Finance to facilitate cooperatives to access preferential credit packages.

At the same time, training courses on digital transformation will be organised for cooperatives’ managers and leaders in the time to come.

On the other hand, emphasis will be on facilitating cooperatives to attend trade and investment promotion programmes, as well as to foster the application of information technology in production and business towards digital transformation in order to reduce costs and improve product quality.

Reporting by TRIEU TUNG - Translating by M.DUNG