COOPERATIVES are seen as vital to efforts to promote local products in the global market, a Malaysian cooperative official said.

Asean Cooperative Organization (ACO) president Dato Abdul Fattah Abdullah said this would lead to building a stronger integration within the Southeast Asian countries. He also said promoting the local industry is one of the goals of ACO.

“I plan each Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-member country to find at least 10 products to consider as country products,” Abdullah said adding that this will be a good avenue in marketing local products and for local cooperatives to gain networks in the Asean region.

International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) regional director for Asia and Pacific Balu Iyer said during the press conference that cooperatives in the Philippines must also be able to widen their partnerships and even go global.

“This is part of our advocacy to also be able to assist in the different economic activities in the progress of our local cooperatives,” Iyer said.

Iyer added through this marketing of different products in the Asean region learning becomes a two-way street for local cooperatives and international stakeholders.

Abdullah said if they can encourage other Asean countries to participate they can already start with at least 100 products to market.

He added that the Chinese market can be a good target of these products because of their huge population and wide marketing industries.

Data from the World Bank shows that in 2017 China has a population of 1.38 billion people, and one of the major importers in Asean.

Abdullah added that this is not only selling products but also a huge way in representing each Asean country.