A total of 76 new cooperatives were established and recorded with government over a 10-month period.
Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications Manoa Kamikamica noted this while responding to a question in parliament last Friday.
He said he expected the numbers to increase “more rapidly”.
At present, there are about 554 cooperatives in Fiji operating across 15 various sectors covering the whole of the country.
“That augurs well for what the Government will try and do, which is to try and push economic activities into the rural areas where most of these cooperatives are based,” Mr Kamikamica said.
He said there were various forms of assistance for cooperatives that had been developed over the years.
“These include what we call as hand holding services – in terms of setting up a cooperative takes time and there is need for a lot of awareness and a lot of hand holding with those who are with co-operatives.
“That is a major service and we have offices that cover Suva, Lami, Sigatoka, basically the whole of Fiji. Their prime job is to try and drive cooperatives to be formed and developed.”
He noted that Minister for Youth and Sport Jese Saukuru had been encouraging youth clubs to form cooperatives like a commercial arm.
“A lot of trainings the ministry undertakes – financial and governance and bookkeeping – to try and assist cooperatives in starting up and moving forward.
“We have had a rich history of cooperatives in this country. In terms of how we intend to develop rural economy, cooperatives will be a significant vehicle to generate economic activity particularly in the rural communities.”
