PETALING JAYA (Oct 15): The Malaysian National Co-operative Movement (Angkasa) is hoping that the Government raises the  allocation for the co-operative sector to RM300 million in 2019, from RM100 million this year.

“The allocation will be used to finance programmes and activities for co-operatives,” said Angkasa president Datuk Abdul Fattah Abdullah.

He said the allocation will be channelled to eight sectors, namely innovation and technology; tourism; health and personal care; retail and wholesale; farming, agriculture and farming industry; real estate development; financial service development; and community development.

Abdul Fattah said the cooperative sector’s revenue currently stands at RM40.2 billion. “With the additional allocation sought, we hope to reach RM50 billion by 2020,” he said.

However, if the allocation is not provided, it will be a challenge for the sector to register such revenue.

Abdul Fattah was speaking to reporters after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Virtualflex Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johor Corp Bhd, and the Asean Co-operative Organisation (ACO).