KUSKOP To Review Eight Resolutions By Co-Op Movement For Budget 2027

PETALING JAYA, June 11 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (KUSKOP) will review eight resolutions submitted by the national cooperative movement before presenting them to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) for consideration in Budget 2027.

Its Deputy Minister, Datuk Mohamad Alamin, stated that the resolutions presented at the Malaysia Cooperative Budget 2027 Consultation Convention will be refined at the ministry level to ensure every proposal has strong justification.

“We will discuss this at the ministry level first and refine everything that has been proposed, including the requested RM500 million (fund), before handing it over to the Ministry of Finance,” he told reporters after the closing ceremony of the convention here today.

Also present were KUSKOP Deputy Secretary-General Datuk Saidatu Akhma Hassan, ANGKASA President Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Fattah Abdullah, and Malaysia Co-operative Societies Commission (SKM) Chief Executive Officer Nor Afifah Abdul Razak.

As a result of the convention, eight resolutions were submitted, including a proposal to recognise ANGKASA as an apex body to strengthen the cooperative ecosystem, alongside a request for an allocation of RM500 million for the year 2027 to develop and scale up the cooperative movement nationwide.

Mohamad said that the country's cooperative sector is a significant economic driver, with the involvement of nearly 17,000 cooperatives and a membership reaching 7.4 million people, contributing 3.6 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year.

In line with this, he said the cooperative movement is encouraged to shift away from relying solely on government grants toward becoming sustainable business entities capable of generating high income.

“It is true that grants are important, but today's government cannot allow cooperatives to continuously depend on grant assistance alone. We want them to be more aggressive in leveraging other financial instruments, such as the Revolving Capital Fund under SKM,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Fattah said that the revenue of the national cooperative movement has now reached RM81.62 billion, surpassing the target set in the Malaysian Cooperative Policy (DAKoM) 2030.

He said this achievement proves that cooperatives are increasingly playing a role as economic drivers for the people and need to be mainstreamed as key implementing partners for the government in the popular economy, food security, digital economy, and rural community development sectors.

“The time has come for the approach toward the cooperative sector to be strengthened from mere support to strategic empowerment in executing the national economic agenda.

“Through this convention, we want to prove to the government that the cooperative sector is serious about driving the economy, and we hope that requests for financial instruments such as matching grants or micro-financing will be given serious consideration,” he said.

According to Abdul Fattah, the convention serves as a strategic platform to gather the aspirations, proposals, and views of the cooperative movement to be highlighted in the preparation of Budget 2027 as well as the implementation of the 13th Malaysia Plan (RMK13).

-- BERNAMA