President for reviving cooperative movement by amending laws, checking graft

President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has called for eliminating corruption, strengthening the capacity of cooperative societies, taking effective initiatives to market their products and amending necessary laws to revive the cooperative movement in the country.

“Most cooperative societies had been tumbledown due to corruption within them, weakening their activities. Only a handful of organizations are functioning successfully, although the cooperative movement had a long history. Cooperative organisations must be made corruption-free to ensure success,” he said.

The president made the remarks while addressing a programme as the chief guest marking the 55th National Cooperative Day 2026 at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on Sunday morning.

The president said the cooperative movement began in 1904 and continued for a long period. In the meantime, Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman had attached great importance to cooperatives.

“Ziaur Rahman had taken initiatives to integrate cooperatives into his self-reliance movement, through which he wanted to build a self-reliant Bangladesh. For this, he brought Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan, who was recognised as a pioneer of the cooperative movement in Bangladesh in the 1960s, back from Pakistan and involved him in the movement by appointing him director general of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD).”

The cooperative movement had an opportunity to make considerable progress then, he said.

The president also highlighted the significant contributions and initiatives of Begum Khaleda Zia, to cooperative development and expressed the hope that the cooperative sector would gain further momentum under the leadership of the present government.

Referring to successful cooperatives of the past, the president said, “Unfortunately, the cooperative movement no longer enjoys its past glory. Gradually, it had declined considerably, and the same level of importance and attention is no longer being given to the movement like in the past.”

In this connection, he called upon the concerned authorities to take necessary measures to amend and update the existing cooperative-related laws to make them suitable for the development and expansion of the cooperative sector.

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At the same time, he urged the authorities to take measures to enable cooperative societies to survive by competing with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country.

“The concept of NGOs has progressed remarkably in Bangladesh which contributed to the decline of the cooperative movement. Now, cooperative institutions have to compete with NGOs. For this reason, measures must be taken to strengthen the competitive capacity of cooperative societies so that they can compete with NGOs and sustain themselves,” he said.

The president also urged the concerned ministries to take effective measures to ensure proper marketing of products manufactured by cooperative institutions.

“Cooperative institutions face major difficulties in marketing their produced products. In this regard, the Department of Cooperatives and the ministry could take initiatives,” he said.

Cooperative-based companies could be established to assist cooperative societies in marketing their products, he said, adding there are considerable shortage of such initiatives in the country.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam said the fundamental concept of cooperatives is working together in unity. To take the country forward while facing various challenges, people must remain united. “We must work together to advance the country by confronting the conspiracies and plots aimed at pushing it backwards,” he added.

Praising successful cooperative individuals and institutions, the President said, “I have recently had the opportunity to visit the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development in Bogura and observed that they were doing really excellent work. I’m also delighted to see the activities and progress of several successful cooperatives at today's programme.”

"You have still kept the cooperative movement alive. However, merely keeping it alive will not be enough rather you have to take it forward and present it more extensively before the people," he added, thanking the cooperative members.

Earlier, the president handed over awards and crests to successful cooperative members and organisations at the event.

President of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry, Secretary of the LGRD and Cooperatives Ministry AKM Selim Reza Habib, ministry’s Secretary Dr Rafiqul I Mohamed and President of the Bangladesh National Cooperative Md Abdus Salam spoke as special guests while Registrar and Director General of the Department of Cooperatives Md Salim Fakir delivered the welcome address.

The theme of this year's Cooperative Day, organised by the Department of Cooperatives, is “Gorbo Somobay, Gorbo Desh. Sobar Jonno Bangladesh (We will build cooperatives; we will build the country. Bangladesh for all).”

Earlier, upon arriving at the venue, the president visited different stalls.