Cooperative commisions should play a bigger role in assisting the SMEs to penetrate the market of TPPA nations

KUALA LUMPUR: The Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia (SKM) should play a bigger role in assisting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to penetrate the market of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) nations.
Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin said the commission can act as a facilitator or adviser for cooperatives to increase their quality of products before exporting to international markets.
"I want SKM to help cooperatives so that they can manufacture products of high quality and be able to capture the market in TPPA nations," Hamzah said after officiating the SKM Distinguished Service Awards 2015 at the commission's office here today.
Out of the 12,000 cooperatives in the country, 2,000 produce SME products.
In 2014, a total of 2,144 cooperatives had shared dividends worth RM1.22 billion compared with 1,590 cooperatives which shared RM1.15 billion dividends in 2013.
Commenting on the impact of the TPPA to the cooperatives, Hamzah said the free trade agreement could be the impetus for the cooperative movement to be more creative and innovative.
"A small country like ours, which adopted the concept of free economy, the competition among the trade partners would certainly give us more creative ideas for us to produce higher quality products," Hamzah said.
The TPPA was signed by 12 countries, namely the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, on Feb 4.
Malaysia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to increase by US$107 billion (RM443 billion) to US$211 billion over 2018-2027, which would raise GDP growth between 0.60% and 1.15% in 2027.