4,000 gather for co-op meet in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines—This year’s biggest meeting of cooperative leaders in the country seeks to address the challenges and opportunities for the local cooperative movement in the advent of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations integration in 2015.

More than 4,000 stakeholders attended the 12th National Cooperative Summit, jointly organized by the Cooperative Development Authority and Philippine Cooperative Center (PCC), in cooperation with the local hosts, Victo National Cooperative Federation and Philippine Cooperative Central Fund Federation.

The summit is being held until Oct. 18 at Waterfront Hotel in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

PCC chair Doris Cañares, in a statement, said cooperatives “are living in a world where socioeconomic shifts continue to move at a very fast pace.”

“The faster these move, the faster they create the frame of mind for each and every one of us to catch up, learn and adopt new processes deemed to help improve and uplift the lives of not only individuals but everyone [as well],” she said in a speech at the summit.