ALOR SETAR, July 25 - Cooperatives, especially in Kedah should grab the advantage of the Visit Kedah 2025 and Visit Malaysia 2026 to explore new opportunities, particularly in the tourism sector.

This is to ensure cooperatives not only remain competitive and grow but also be consistent in generating income.

Chairman of the Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia (SKM) Leftenan General (B) Datuk Ahmad Norihan Jalal said, based on cooperative statistic in Kedah until 31st December 2023, a total of 1,003 cooperatives were registered with registered membership of 285,302 people.

He said, the total shares or fees amounted to RM357.98 million and total assets were valued at RM754 million.

Meanwhile, the earning of the cooperatives was RM425.96 million.

“We look at two things. Firstly, the achievement of the cooperatives in Kedah, especially micro cooperatives and cooperatives that involve almost 70 percent of those in rural areas has shown an increase. Secondly, we will also add a number of cooperatives especially those in rural areas to increase it further,” Norihan said.

He spoke to the reporters after launching the National Cooperatives Congress 2024 at the state level in Kedah.

Also present were the Chairman of Kedah’s Tourism, Culture and Entrepreneurship, Datuk Mohd Salleh Saidin and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia, Kumaresan a/l Arumugam.

The programme themed “Malaysia Madani Teras Cemerlang Koperasi” is synonymous with the MADANI Government’s aspiration because a cooperative is a good model for driving the economy at the grass root level.

Meanwhile, commenting on the MADANI Cooperative and Entrepreneur Sales (JMKU) programme, Leftenan General (B) Datuk Ahmad Norihan said that a total of 65 programmes had been implemented with a total of RM1.69 million in approved incentives.

It involved total sales of RM5.9 million and benefited 202,846 users.