Mr. Soomilduth Bholah, Minister of Business, Enterprise & Cooperatives of Republic of Mauritius accompanied by Permanent Secretary of Ministry and the High Commissioner of Mauritius New Delhi visited NCUI last week.
Dr. Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, MP and President, NCUI accompanied by the Vice-Presidents of NCUI welcomed the hon’ble Minister and and other guests who accompanied him. .
NCUI President, stressed upon the need to enhance the ties of friendship between India & Mauritius for strengthening bilateral relations. He informed the Mauritian delegation about the pioneering role of NCUI in promoting the cooperative education & training through the network of 20 Cooperative Training Institutions of NCCT and National Centre for Cooperative Education of NCUI. He also informed them that the personnel from the Mauritian Cooperative sector have been participating in various Management Development and other programmes organized by NCCT & NCCE.
The President also proposed signing a MoU between the two countries for benefitting from each other’s experiences. The President also invited the Minister and delegates to participate in the forthcoming ICA – AP Regional Assembly to be held in New Delhi during November 2016.
Mr. Soomilduth Bholah informed that there are 1200 cooperative societies at Primary & Secondary level having membership of 1.3 million and cooperatives are active in agricultural services, fisheries and most importantly as credit unions.
The Minister suggested that a MoU could be signed between NCUI & MCU (Mauritius Cooperative Union). He also informed that the Ministry is in the process of amending the Cooperative Law during 2016, as the present law has been in force since 2006. He further said the National Institute of Cooperative Entrepreneurship of Mauritius is responsible for capacity building of personnel working in cooperative societies in Mauritius.
Dr. Manoj Nardeosingh, Assistant Secretary General of African Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO), New Delhi (who was earlier the Secretary of Cooperative Development in the Ministry of Business, Enterprise & Cooperatives of Republic of Mauritius) was also invited for the meeting, who talked about his passion for the cooperative sector and how he is trying to involve cooperatives in the activities of AARDO.
Earlier, a presentation on the Indian Cooperative Movement and activities of NCUI made by Ritesh Dey, Deputy Director (International Relations) of NCUI on the occasion.
The meeting was also attended by the two Vice-Presidents of NCUI Dr. Bijender Singh & Shri G.H. Amin, Sunil Kumar Singh, Chairman, BISCOMAUN and all senior officers of NCUI & NCCT.
