Prinya Phengsombut,
director of the Co-operative Technology Transfer and Development Office,
presides over the meeting in Jomtien.
Warunya Thongrod
More than 500 officials responsible for development and management of
Thai farmer co-operatives met in Pattaya to draft a unified plan to
bolster the agricultural groups.
Prinya Phengsombut, director of the Co-operative Technology Transfer and
Development Office, presided over the Sept. 7 meeting in Jomtien.
Four Thai government offices - Co-operative Business Development,
Co-operative Support and Development, Funds Management, and Co-operative
Technology Transfer and Development - have jurisdiction over the co-ops.
While they are all supposedly dedicated to backing farmers and updating
them on new developments, they all operate separately, said Somchai
Channarongkul, director-general of the Co-operatives Department.
“The main purpose of the seminar is the discussion between the four
major agencies within the department to proceed in the same direction
since each department has specific responsibilities and one agency
working alone cannot be successful,” Somchai said. “Therefore, it is
necessary for other agencies to cooperate for the drafted strategies to
work. I hope that during the next year and the years after, these
personnel will be able to build a network that is complete and stronger
in the cooperatives system.”
