The 6th Asia Pacific Co-operative Ministers' Conference will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 3-7 April 2002.

The first Asia Pacific Co-operative Minister's Conference was held in Sydney in 1990. The main focus of the Ministerial Conference Series has been on creating an enabling public policy environment for the development of co-operatives in countries throughout the region. Particular attention has been paid to modernising co-operative legislation in member countries.

It is expected that representatives from government and the co-operative movement from over thirty countries will be attending. A national minister responsible for co-operatives and the national apex co-operative organisation generally represents countries at these conferences. Australia, however, has no federal minister responsible for co-operatives. Also, since the early 1990's there has not been a national co-operative organisation, which has been a full member of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). At present there are two associate members of the ICA in Australia, ACCORD and the Co-operative Federation of NSW Ltd.

The second critical study on Co-operative Legislation and Policy in the region, conducted by ICA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ICA ROAP) and the deliberations of Regional Consultation held in Iran last year will form the basis of discussions at the Conference. As reported in our last e-newsletter, ACCORD was one of two organisations commissioned to undertake this research. Its task included reviewing co-operative policy and legislation in Australia, Vietnam, Thailand and Korea. Details of the conference program can be obtained from the ICA ROAP website at http://www.icaroap.org.sg

If you would like more details about the second critical study please contact Garry Cronan at gcronan@mpx.com.au