Creation of Cooperative Bank proposed

The creation of a Cooperative Bank to give priority to the needs of cooperatives is one of a number of proposals being made in a bill to amend the Cooperatives Act, Jason Azzopardi, the minister responsible for Cooperatives said.

Dr Azzopardi said that a motion for the first reading of the bill moved in Parliament yesterday. He was speaking during a visit to the Manikata Rural Cooperative on the occasion of World Cooperatives Day. The MRC is one of the 55 cooperatives in Malta.

The minister said that the bill is aimed at encouraging the creation of more cooperatives and to encourage existing ones involve themselves in a social aspects.

It proposes that assistance is given to cooperatives working in the fields of research and innovation and the transformation of the Cooperatives' Board into an authority with the necessary funds and structures.

Other proposals are to introduce the right of appeal from Administrative Board Tribunal decisions and to provide a conversion process opportunity to companies being liquidated, giving them the opportunity to be transformed into another legal entity.