Operational efficiency of the Cooperative Development Support Fund

With access to preferential loans, Tan Phuc handicraft cooperative, Trung Chinh commune has invested in expanding production and business.

In the early days of its establishment, Tan Phuc Small Industry Cooperative, Trung Chinh Commune, encountered many difficulties in finance as well as production and business experience, but with the help of the Provincial Cooperative Union in consulting and supporting capital sources, the Cooperative has now stabilized production and brought many quality products to the market. The Cooperative's revenue in 2024 reached about 26 billion VND, creating jobs and stable income for about 1,000 workers, and the estimated revenue in 2025 of the Cooperative is about 30 billion VND. Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, Director of the Cooperative, said: "During the production process, the Thanh Hoa Cooperative Development Support Fund has supported the Cooperative to access preferential loans with quick procedures. This is the driving force for the Cooperative to expand production and business. In the coming time, the Cooperative hopes to continue to be facilitated to borrow preferential loans from the Cooperative Development Support Fund to expand production and business".

Thanh Hoa Provincial Cooperative Development Support Fund was established under Decision No. 2168/QD-UBND dated June 11, 2018 and replaced by Decision No. 58/2024/QD-UBND dated September 30, 2024 of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee on the charter and organization of activities of Thanh Hoa Provincial Cooperative Development Support Fund. Currently, the highest loan projects are 1 billion VND, the lowest is 200 million VND, with a short-term loan interest rate of 4.8%, from 2 years to 7 years is 5.28%. Through access to preferential loans, cooperatives and cooperative members in the province have the conditions to expand investment and apply scientific advances to production. Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, Director of Quang Trung Aquatic Cooperative (Quang Chinh Commune), said: "After being introduced to the Cooperative Development Support Fund by the Provincial Cooperative Union, a number of eligible members of the cooperative registered for loans. After being assessed, eligible members were able to borrow capital at preferential interest rates. Thereby, households have funds to renovate fields and invest in quality seed sources for production. Thanks to that, economic efficiency has been significantly improved, contributing to increasing the cooperative's revenue and developing the local socio-economy."

Along with the above cooperatives, the demand for loans to invest in production and business of cooperatives, cooperative members, and cooperative groups in the province is quite large; the work of appraising documents, approving and disbursing capital is carried out quickly, neatly, and in accordance with the procedures by the fund's staff. Therefore, in the first 7 months of 2025, the fund has appraised, approved and lent 36 projects with an amount of 13.74 billion VND. Since its establishment, the Fund has consulted and supported 250 projects and loan plans with a total accumulated loan amount up to August 2025 of more than 84.5 billion VND. According to a survey by the Provincial Cooperative Union, preferential loans are effectively used by cooperatives, contributing to the development of production and business, innovation of technology, expansion of production scale and product consumption markets. Many cooperatives have invested in means of transport, tray plating factories, agricultural product storage warehouses, dryers, transformer station construction, power line upgrades, winch houses, trailers... creating more jobs for members and workers.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, Director of Thanh Hoa Province Cooperative Development Support Fund, said: “To contribute to improving the effectiveness of the Cooperative Development Support Fund, we continue to innovate management and operation methods. In particular, we will improve the quality of human resources at the fund, focusing on the appraisal and consultation stages of production and business planning for cooperatives. At the same time, we will continue to strengthen the inspection and supervision of capital use by cooperatives and cooperative members.”

Currently, the demand for loans of cooperatives is quite large, while the capital of the fund can only meet a small part. Therefore, in addition to capital from the fund, Thanh Hoa Cooperative Alliance has coordinated with the Social Policy Bank at all levels, the Cooperative Development Support Fund under the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance to support cooperatives with sufficient potential and ability to borrow capital to access preferential capital sources. At the same time, the loan limit from Thanh Hoa Cooperative Development Support Fund is increased by 20% of the total charter capital of the cooperative, helping cooperatives to boost investment, improve operational efficiency, and contribute to promoting the development of the collective economy.

Article and photos: Le Hoa

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/hieu-qua-hoat-dong-cua-quy-ho-tro-phat-trien-htx-258840.htm