The ILO hosted an international conference on statistics of cooperatives, as part of the cooperative statistics component of the Strengthening Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Base project. The event took place on 30 June 2023 at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center (BEXCO) 55 APEC-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan, Republic of Korea.
It bears recalling in this context that working on the similar theme, the Union Ministry of Cooperation is also developing a database on cooperatives active in India. Speaking in the Indian Parliament, the Union Minister Amit Shah stressed the urgency of co-op databases to develop suitable co-op policies.
Shah said “Statistics on cooperatives are essential to quantify the contributions of cooperatives in the progress of the economy. Currently reliable and comparable statistics on cooperatives are missing as there is no uniform database which can capture data on various growth parameters of diverse sectoral cooperatives. The organizations are collecting sector-specific data and are submitting to NCUI for necessary compilation. There is a need for compiling the data on cooperatives so that the application of the data can help in designing better managerial and policy decisions for cooperative development.”
In the Korean conference, the findings from the cooperative statistics component of the Strengthening Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Base project funded by the Ministry of Employment and Labour (MoEL) of the Republic of Korea were showcased.
National Researchers from five countries – Korea, Italy, Costa Rica, Türkiye and Tanzania, presented their analysis on the statistics available and used in each country related to cooperatives in comparison to the ILO’s Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives.
The conference shed light on the importance of having an international standard on statistics of cooperatives, in particular on the number of cooperatives, types of cooperatives, members, employees and work in cooperatives, and their contributions to the economy and their members.
It also helped in bringing together different partners from national statistical offices (NSOs), public ministries, cooperative federations/confederations, unions, research institutes and others, interested in developing statistics on cooperatives, to share knowledge and further strengthen partnership.
The event took place in coordination with the Korean 5th Social Economy Fair in Busan, Republic of Korea (from 30th June to 2nd July 2023). The event was conducted both in person and online, with simultaneous translation provided (English to Korean).
A study trip in Korea, including a visit to the iCOOP’s Goesan Natural Dream Park and participation in the CIRIEC conference on Social and Solidarity Economy, followed from 1st to 6th of July 2023.