Enactment of the Fundamental Act on Cooperatives and Its Implications for Rural Development Policy

The Cooperatives Act was enacted. This enabled people to establish easily cooperatives at various fields. A cooperative is an important vehicle for rural community development. Therefore, the enactment of the Cooperatives Act can be a significant chance for rural policy. The Cooperatives Act have made three significant changes. First, cooperatives can start businesses at all the fields except for financial and insurance business. Second, requisites for people to establish cooperatives have been alleviated exceptionaly. Third, the Cooperatives Act introduced a new cooperative organization, social cooperative which aims to serve the socially excluded class. The self-help approach places rural community members at the core of a development process with two goals: to improve the quality of life within the community and to facilitate the community's capacity building. Community cooperatives contribute to accomplish those goals. One of the roles for cooperatives is to provide products and services at competitive prices. Providing a good or service at a competitive price bcomes increasingly important in some rural communities declines. Cooperative development processes have bic impacts on the ablility of community members to increase human asset and social capital. We conducted a survey targeting rural community businesses to grasp inclinations toward establishing cooperatives. The Cooperatives Act has gained low level of recognition. But so many community businesses wanted to establish cooperatives. This means there is a possibility for many community businesses to establish cooperatives without sufficient understanding. We suggested some policy issues for coping with this situation, as followings. First, the governments should provides rural community residents with opportunities to learn about cooperatives. Second, the current legal systems and regulations about business and social service should be reviewed to do away with the possible discrimination between the new cooperatives and the other forms of incoporation. Third, the cooperation of cooperatives should be encouraged and facilitated in rural communities.

협동조합기본법 제정 및 시행의 시사점과 농촌 정책의 과제

2012년 12월 1일부로 시행된 협동조합기본법은 '협동조합의 사업 분야 전면적 개방', '협동조합 설립 요건 완화', '사회적 협동조합 제도 도입' 등의 특징을 갖고 있다. 협동조합은 농촌 지역사회의 경제적 지속가능성과 자조적 발전 역량 강화에 기여할 잠재력을 갖고 있다. 현재 농촌의 커뮤니티 비즈니스 조직 경영자 가운데 협동조합기본법을 인지하고 있는 이의 비율은 36.5%에 불과함에 비해 협동조합 설립 의향을 밝힌 이의 비율은 53.8%에 달했다. 협동조합기본법 시행에 상응한 농촌 정책 과제들을 다음과 같이 제시하였다. 첫째, 농촌 주민들이 협동조합을 학습할 기회를 확대해야 한다. 둘째, 여타의 법인에 비해 차별적인 처우를 받지 않도록 법규와 정책 사업 지침을 검토하고 개정해야 한다. 셋째, 농촌 지역의 사회 서비스 정책 추진체계에 사회적 협동조합이 자연스럽게 편입될 수 있게 법제와 정책을 정비해야 한다. 넷째, 장기적으로는 협동조합들의 협동이 촉진되도록 협동조합연합회 관련 법규를 개방적으로 바꾸어야 한다.