APEC Concept Note

Please submit to APEC Secretariat Program Director. Concept Notes exceeding 3 pages (including title page)
and incomplete submissions will not be considered. Responses must be no less than 10pt font.

Project Title: A POLICY DIALOGUE SEMINAR ON SUPPORTING INCLUSIVE GROWTH THROUGH

COOPERATIVE BUSINESS MODEL
Fund Source (Select one only):
General Project Account (GPA)
Trade and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation Special Account (TILF)
APEC Support Fund (ASF) – General Fund
APEC Support Fund (ASF) – Sub-Fund. You must nominate the sub-fund here: …………………………………

APEC forum: Economic Committee (EC)

Proposing APEC economy: Malaysia
Co-sponsoring economies:
Expected Start Date:
Project Completion Date:
See Chapter 7 Guidebook on APEC Projects

Project summary: As member-driven and people-centred organizations, cooperatives play an

In 150 words - important role in advancing productive and decent work. Through providing job
 What is the issue that you opportunities and improving livelihoods, the cooperative model can support
will address or examine in vulnerable segments of society such as unemployed youth, single female headed
your project? households, indigenous communities and people with disabilities. Beside their
inclusiveness, cooperatives aim to enable equitable opportunities to small farmers,
 Outline the key things your
traders and crafts people by pooling resources to achieve economies of scale for
project will do, in terms of
access to inputs, credit, technology and markets.
what, where, when and with
whom.(Summary must be no
To fully enable the potential of cooperatives in inclusive socio-economic
longer than the box provided.
Cover sheet must fit on one development, the challenges that cooperatives are facing need to be understood
page) and addressed through an appropriate enabling environment, including legislation,
institutions, capacity building and funding mechanisms. This proposal is for a one-
day policy dialogue seminar on the cooperative development policy to be held in
Malaysia concurrent with APEC Summit 2020. The purpose of the seminar is to
discuss and shares experiences in translating policy and regulating framework for
cooperatives development and establishing inter-regional co-operation and
networking between regulators and policy makers.

Total cost of proposal: (APEC Total amount being sought from APEC (USD):
funding + self-funding):
By category: Travel: Labor costs:
USD Hosting: Publication & distribution: Other:
(See Guidebook on APEC Projects, Ch. 9 to ensure all proposed costs are allowable.)

Project Overseer Information and Declaration:

Name: Fadilah Salim
Title: Deputy Director of Policy and Development Planning
Organization: Malaysia Cooperative Societies Commission
Postal address: Menara SKM, Changkat Semantan, Off Jalan Semantan, Bukit Damansara, 50490 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 03-2083 4000 E-mail:
As Project Overseer and on behalf of the above said Organization, I declare that this submission was prepared in accordance with the Guidebook
on APEC Projects (the Guidebook) and any ensuing project will comply with said Guidebook. Failure to do so may result in the BMC denying or
revoking funding and/or project approval. I understand that any funds approved are granted on the basis of the information in the document’s
budget table, in the case of any inconsistencies within the document.

Name of Project Overseer / Date

 Project Synopsis
1. Relevance – Benefits to region: What problem does the project seek to address? Does it have
sustained benefits for more than one economy?

This project is parallel with APEC action agenda on advancing economic, financial and social inclusion in the
APEC region. APEC region is faced with challenges to economic, financial and social inclusion, such as
persistent inequality and unemployment, enduring multi-dimensional poverty affecting health, education and
living standards, and impacts of technological progress. Moreover, significant demographic changes in some
APEC economies, such as aging populations and the rise of the middle-income segment of the population,
pose other challenges to inclusive growth. Advancing inclusion is critical to achieving inclusive growth with
far- reaching impacts on both developing and developed economies, large and small, from the Southern and
Northern hemispheres and both sides of the Pacific. While many APEC initiatives already work toward
supporting inclusion and aim to capture the emerging regional and global trends, significant gaps remain to be
addressed. The better enabling policy for cooperative development aims to achieve the following APEC
aspirational objectives:

a. Economic inclusion: Advance progress towards achieving full and productive employment and
decent work for all, including young people, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, and equal pay
for equal work; progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the
population at a rate higher than the average level in each economy as envisioned in the 2030
Agenda on Sustainable Development.
b. Financial inclusion: Strengthen the capacity of financial institutions to encourage and expand access
to banking, insurance and financial services, and increase financial literacy and capability of all to
access finance; and
c. Social inclusion: Empower all members of society to take advantage of economic opportunities.

Relevance – Eligibility and Fund Priorities: How does the project a) meet the eligibility criteria and b)
support the funding priorities for the nominated fund or sub-fund? Refer to the APEC website.

This project fits the eligibility criteria for

Relevance – Capacity Building: How will the project build the capacity of APEC member economies?

APEC developing member economies need to build capacities in the areas relevant to achieve the long term
goals such as sustainable growth, equitable development, financial inclusion, reduction of economic disparities
and acceleration of regional economy development. The cooperative business model had proved as an
effective tool to boost the improvement of the economic and social well-being of the people within APEC
economies. This project focus on capacity building through sharing of information and knowledge and
exchange of experiences and policies in providing condusive environment for cooperative development. It is
anticipated that the seminar and the resulting recommendations/ best practice will help improve the related
policies and regulatory capacities of policy makers and relevant stakeholders in APEC member economies,
particularly developing economies.

Objective:

The policy dialogue seminar to be held in 2020 is aims at;

1. Share insights and best practices on regulatory and policy framework for cooperative development
within the APEC region and how it has contributed to enriching local and indigenous communities
by delivering impact projects and increasing the standard of living.
2. Develop, collate and suggest policy recommendations on cooperatives regulation and policies for
creating sustainable communities and enhancing people-to-people connectivity.
3. Develop recommendations on joint tasks or work program for achieving greater integration and
convergence of cooperative development policies for immediate and future cooperation among APEC
member economies.

2. Alignment – APEC: Describe specific APEC priorities, goals, strategies and/or statements that the
project supports, and explain how the project will contribute to their achievement.
 Alignment – Forum: How does the project align with your forum’s work plan/strategic plan?

3. Methodology: How do you plan to implement the project? Briefly address the following:
 Work plan:
1. Establish Project Planning Committee
The planning committee will determine:
- Content of the agenda
- Seminar participants, and
- Identification and/or endorsement of workshop speakers/events

2. Confirm date/location of the Seminar

The exact venue and date are not confirmed, however, the meeting venue will be a close
proximity from the meeting places of the APEC Summit.

3. Develop detailed Seminar agenda and identify potential speakers

The agenda will be circulated to the project planning committee for review and input. Once
the draft agenda is finalized, identification of speakers will commence. Identified speakers will
be both from developing and developed economies.

4. Nominate Seminar participants and send invitations

Ministry or agencies in charge of cooperative development from APEC developed and
developing economies will be invited to the Summit especially ASEAN economies, Korea and
Japan.

5. Convene the Seminar and launch deliverables

Organization will be carried out over a period of several weeks. The project overseers and
the Government of Malaysia will be responsible for managing Seminar logistics. The actual
number of speakers and participants will be informed by the agenda content and endorsed by
the planning committee

 Beneficiaries: Selection criteria for participants, beneficiary profiles (e.g. participants, end users,
policy makers, researchers/ analysts, gender) and how they will be engaged.

Beneficiaries:

1. ministry/agencies in charge of cooperative development

2. professional , researcher and academician
3. cooperatives / women/youth/ community/ apex coop

Evaluation: Outline the indicators which will be used to measure progress towards the project
outcomes. Where possible provide indicators which could assess impacts on women.

.This project will have direct impact on participants from all APEC member economies. The results will be
measured by a questionnaire that would seek the direct and frank response from all participants to the
workshop on the usefulness of each module and also the overall workshop. Immediately following the
workshop, participants will be requested to fill in an assessment form to get an indication as to whether the
program met expectations or not.

As mentioned earlier, the results of the project will be reflected in the performance of participants, thus for
long term, comments and following correspondence between organizing body and participants will prove
helpfulness of the activities.

 Linkages: Experts and participants from the private sector and non-governmental institutions will be
invited and strongly encouraged to attend the workshop. They will also be consulted during the drafting of
the agenda of the workshop to facilitate their involvement in the preparation of the workshop. In addition,
the final report of this project, to be published after the workshop will also be provided to them.