Public Notice List of National Demonstration Cooperatives and Water Use Demonstration Organizations Released
On September 10, the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on the Development of Farmers' Cooperatives nationwide released in Beijing the public notice list of national demonstration cooperatives, with 4021 cooperatives and water use organizations entering the public notice stage of assessment. In accordance with the requirements of this year's Central Document No. 1 and the work arrangements made at the beginning of the year by the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on the Development of Farmers' Cooperatives nationwide, all localities attached great importance to the work, and relevant departments worked together in unity, organized carefully and planned thoroughly, completing the recommendation, application and selection work. They have now formally entered the public notice stage, subject to oversight from all sectors of society.
This demonstration cooperative assessment is the first assessment conducted since the establishment of the national joint conference. Relevant functional departments at all levels, in accordance with the requirements of the "Notice on Carrying Out the Application Work for National Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Cooperatives" and the "Interim Measures for the Assessment and Monitoring of National Farmers' Professional Cooperative Demonstration Cooperatives," strictly applied standards to ensure quality, adopted a method of allocating quotas from the top down and voluntary application from the bottom up, and guided eligible cooperatives and water use organizations to actively apply. According to statistics, a total of 4021 cooperatives and water use organizations entered this public notice list, including 3767 national demonstration cooperatives and 254 national water use demonstration organizations. As of the end of July, there were 1.19 million cooperatives registered with industry and commerce authorities nationwide, and the national demonstration cooperatives assessed this time accounted for 3.2‰ of the total number of cooperatives registered with industry and commerce authorities nationwide.
In the recommendation and review process, all localities exercised strict control and selected the best from among the good. Following the principle of preferring nothing to something inferior, they strictly reviewed and checked the cooperatives recommended at the grassroots level. Most localities adopted methods of scoring and ranking, and reporting the best candidates; some localities verified cooperative registration, member capital contributions, operation and management, and other aspects through on-site visits, telephone inquiries and other means; and some localities applied a one-vote veto to cooperatives with problems in democratic deliberation, financial management, surplus distribution, product quality and other aspects.
The farmers' cooperatives and water use organizations in this public notice have relatively standardized management, larger operating scales, and stronger market competitiveness and ability to drive farming households, making them outstanding among farmers' cooperatives and water use organizations. Through the assessment of national demonstration cooperatives and national water use demonstration organizations, cooperatives and water use organizations in all localities will have "models to learn from and goals to strive for," encouraging the standardized development of various types of cooperatives in all localities and enabling them to play a greater role in promoting farmers' income growth, safeguarding food security, deepening rural reform and developing modern agriculture.
The list of national demonstration cooperatives and national water use demonstration organizations approved at this meeting is now formally released for public notice.