CICOPA is the International Organisation of Industrial and Service Cooperatives, a sector organisation of the ICA since 1947. It has 51 members from 35 countries, whose affiliate 65,000 enterprises employ 4 million persons across the world.

The CICOPA Asia-Pacific network was launched at the CICOPA General Assembly, held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, ahead of the 33rd World Cooperative Congress. The network will explore the common identity, exchange information, create synergies and strengthen the development of industrial and service cooperatives.

CICOPA and Japan Worker Cooperatives Union (JWCU) co-hosted the launch event. It was participated by delegates in a hybrid manner who discussed how industrial and service cooperatives are contributing to the creation and maintenance of decent jobs, protection of specific industries, provision of social services for unmet needs, development of the local community, entrepreneurial innovation, and democratization of economy and society at large. Because of this, governments across the Asia-Pacific region have recently found interest in promoting them, and are developing favourable public policies.

Mr. Iñigo Albizuri, President, CICOPA, said, “today, we are facing an important moment for worker and social cooperatives and the global cooperative movement. “We believe that exchange and inter-cooperation among industrial and service cooperatives in the region will lead to the promotion of decent work through the development and creation of new cooperatives.”

Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP, said, “the service sector is growing in the region” and will have to tackle important challenges, such as inequalities, migration from rural to urban areas and demographic changes. “It is a good time to come together and build opportunities for cooperatives in industry and services and support young cooperators interested in those sectors, he said.”

In 2019, CICOPA and ICA-AP had published a joint research ‘Cooperatives in Industrial and Service Sectors in the Asia-Pacific region’, which contributed to a better understanding of various models of industrial and service cooperatives in the region, despite different forms of employment relationships that might identify them as worker cooperatives, shared service cooperatives, or multi-stakeholder cooperatives. This work was an important stepping stone toward the establishment of the network.

“Today is a historic day,” said Mr. Nobuhiro Furumura, President, JWCU. “Many years of hard work by all of us result ultimately in the establishment of CICOPA Asia-Pacific. Let’s celebrate this epoch-making achievement together, and let’s further deepen our cooperation for developing this new organisation”.

The last CICOPA Global Report estimates that there are at least 378,000 cooperatives in the industrial and service sectors providing almost 20 million jobs to workers around the world and almost 60% of these cooperatives can be found in Asia-Pacific.

To join this network, contact Mr. Osamu Nakano, Director of International Relations, JWCU at o-nakano@roukyou.gr.jp, and Ms. Francesca Zaganelli, Membership Coordinator, CICOPA at cicopa@cicopa.coop.