The 51st National Cooperatives Day will be observed in the country today (Saturday) with the theme ‘Philosophy of Bangabandhu, Development in Cooperatives’.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have issued separate messages greeting all co-operators on the eve of the day.
President Abdul Hamid, in his message, said that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wanted to build a self-reliant economy through village cooperatives.
Bangabandhu considered co-operatives as one of the practical methods of development, the head of the state said, adding that for that purpose, he called for the formation of multipurpose cooperatives in villages.
He (Bangabandhu) dreamt of the overall development of the country by creating the country's production system based on cooperatives and achieving self-reliance of the common people, he said.
The president called upon all concerned to turn the power of 'cooperative', the economic philosophy of the Father of the Nation, into a pro-people cooperative movement.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her message, said that the greatest Bangalee of all time, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman recognized Co-operatives as the second sector of wealth ownership in Article 13(b) of the Constitution and called for Co-operatives to become a mass-oriented movement.
In order to meet the nutritional needs of the people of the country, the dairy industry development project called 'Cooperative Dairy Project' was taken in 1973 to set up milk processing factories in five milk producing areas, the premier added.
Today's 'Milk Vita' is the product of Bangabandhu far-reaching initiatives, she said.
The premier said following the footsteps of the father of the nation, the Awami League-led government is working intensively on rural development along with poverty alleviation through cooperatives.
"We established the Bangabandhu Poverty Alleviation Training Complex in 1997 and later transformed this training center into a full-fledged academy through formulating law in 2012," she added.
She said the Co-operative Societies Act, 2001 and the National Cooperative Policy 2012 were formulated for the betterment of the cooperative.
She said the Bangladesh Rural Development Board Act, 2018 was introduced while the Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2013 was re-enacted.
After assuming power in 2009, the AL-led government adopted 'Amar Bari, Amar Khamar Project' and established Palli Sanchay Bank under this project where a total of 1,20,138 active village development societies have been formed comprising and around 52,44, 000 active beneficiary-members, she said.
In order to increase the income of the common people in the village, create employment opportunities and opportunities for better rural living through infrastructure development and reduce the city-bound flow of people from villages, the government have initially adopted the 'Bangabandhu Model Village Establishment Pilot Project in the Light of Bangabandhu's pro-people cooperative thought in ten villages of the nine districts of the country, she continued.
Besides, the expansion activities of Dairy Cooperatives project in milk-deficit upazilas have been taken for boosting the dairy industry, she said.
Due to the government's sincere efforts, the number of cooperative societies and co-operatives has increased day by day and now there are 1,92,692 societies and 1,20,42,095 members, she continued.
She believed that the cooperative movement will play a leading role in fulfilling the goals of the government by achieving the sustainable development goals declared by the United Nations by 2030 and building a developed Bangladesh by 2041.
The day will be observed by holding different programmes.
The Department of Cooperatives has chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day in a befitting manner.
The day will also be observed at upazila, district and divisional levels in a befitting manner.
