The Business and Cooperative Societies Division is also involved in the review of policy and legislations governing MSMEs, business associations and cooperative societies.

Some of these review work include:

Formulation of National Cooperative Policy

Similar to the national policy for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) businesses, a policy document for cooperative societies was formulated and completed in 2009. The document needs Cabinet approval and is intended to be part of the guidelines to review the Cooperative Act.

The policy outlines implementation strategies for the development of cooperatives in the country. It enables the cooperative movement to play a more effective role in the nation’s development as well as face future challenges in line with the requirements of the government. Onward progress of meetings and interactions will be conducted with identified implementing agencies during the course of the document implementation phases.

Review of Cooperative Societies 1999 Draft Act

The Cooperative Society Unit within the Business and Cooperatives Development Division is planning to review the long existing Cooperative Societies Act Cap. 164. The existing Act was modeled on a similar Indian legislation from 1904.

It was first passed for Solomon Islands in 1957 and reissued in 1969 with minor amendments.

Efforts to replace the outdated Cooperative Societies Act were undertaken in 1980 and 1983. In 1987 the revision of cooperative legislation, drafted by Professor Hans H. Munker of the ILO was submitted. In 1998, an ILO funded review of the cooperative movement was carried out by an appointed committee chaired by Mr. Bob Pollard and was completed in 1999. The 1999 draft cooperative Act was further revised by the Deputy Legal Drafter of the Attorney General’s Chambers and completed in the form of a Cooperative Societies Bill in 2004 but has since been misplaced.  The Cooperative Society Unit is working very closely with the AG’s Chambers to identify further ways of reviewing the Act.