TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 25

Speech by the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Hon. E.H. Nichols, OBE, JT,; Legislative Council

15th November 1978

ANNUAL POLICY DEBATE 1978

Sir,

I have listened with interest to all the speeches of my honourable colleagues and with particular interest in the speech of my honourable colleague, Mr. Andrew So, with whom I have had the pleasure of working for several years in the field of credit unions. I would like to take this opportunity of reassuring Mr. So that the Government continues to be interested in the promotion of self-help co-operative projects whether these be targetted towards economic or

social aims or both.

The co-operative movement in Hong Kong is now more than 25 years of age; and is firmly established as a way of life particularly for many of our primary producers. There are 130 co-operative societies, involving some 12,000 members, or between 48 and 50,000 persons if you include families, providing economic services ranging from marketing to the provision of credit facilities to farmers and fishermen.

There are also 24 socially targetted, or better living, co-operatives which aim at providing social and management services for some 2,000 families or more than 8,000 persons in self-help housing projects for primary producers.

In a more general field there are 253 co-operative societies

of which only 4 are concerned with thrift and loan activities. The remaining 249 societies provide primarily social services for their members; 10 being consumer societies and 239 being concerned with the management and maintenance of apartments and co-operative housing schemes. These 253 societies with a membership of more than 8,400 represent, with their families, some 35,000 persons.