(April 25, 2009)

NISPED launched a reconstruction program promoting long term sustainable human development in China. NISPED's local partner in China is the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (ACFSMC). The project was developed in collabaration with IsraAID-the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid-and has the financial support of the Joint Distribution Committee and B'nai B'rith International. The ACFSMC is providing matching funds.  

Stage one of the project involved a workshop on cooperative financial services which took place in the city of Linyi in Shandong Province on April 20-23, 2009 and was attended by 47 business and financial managers of agricultural cooperatives. In addition, senior officials of the ACFSMC headquarters in Beijing participated. The mayor of Linyi attended the opening ceremony of the workshop.

The project utilizes NISPED training capacities to enable the Chinese cooperatives to strengthen their economic and social effectiveness through a wide-ranging and multi-faceted training program. The training is designed to upgrade cooperative leaders, cooperative economic managers as well as those officials charged with the promotion of cooperatives.  The project will focus on capacity building and improved capability in such areas as business administration, financial management, effective marketing and sound organizational administration. The program will facilitate the reconstruction of the physical and economic infrastructures of supply and marketing cooperatives and will enable upgrading of agricultural enterprises. 

Funding for agricultural and rural entrepreneurs is one of the major challenges facing Chinese rural development agencies such as the ACFSMC. The Chinese are particularly interested in learning about the Israeli rural development experience in order to apply some of its lessons to their own development efforts. The workshop was designed to provide them with an analysis of rural financial services and the Israeli experience in funding agricultural cooperatives.

The project continues with the implementation of a workshop on cooperative business management and business development policies. This workshop will be held in Henan Province on September 7-11th. The third and final part of the project will be a visit of senior ACFSMC officials in Israel to study our rural development experience.

The delegation is scheduled to visit Israel October 25-30, 2009. 

 

 

In February Rafi Goldman, the director of NISPED's international department, took a one week trip to China in order to discuss a joint training program with the ACFSMC (All China Federation Of Supply And Marketing Cooperatives). The discussion resulted in agreements to conduct a training program comprised of two workshops in China as well as a study mission to Israel.The first workshop will take place in April, 2009 in Shandong province and will cover the development and provision of financial services to farmers. The second workshop will take place in Henan province in September, 2009 and will focus on the effective management of primary specialized cooperatives. The third part of the training program will be a study mission to Israel of 15 managers of the ACFSMC from Sichuan and other regions. The study mission will be implemented in October,2009. In addition, it was decided that NISPED will organize a study mission for a delegation of the ACFSMC led by Mr. Zhao Xianren, Vice-president, Board of Directors ACFSMC, which will take place in May, 2009.

           
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