Field research and seminar on “Strategy for developing and promoting worker and social cooperatives in Singapore”

In the framework of the project with the Singapore government, CICOPA organized a field research and a seminar during the week of 19-23 November, in Singapore. Hyungsik Eum, CICOPA data analyst, together with two experts from CICOPA network, Sion Whellens, Co-operatives UK and Lieza Dessein, SMart Belgium carried out interviews with various local stakeholders from the cooperative movement, social enterprises and governmental bodies.

Based on the interim report resulting from the first phase of project and findings from the field research, a seminar was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth in collaboration with CICOPA on 21 November. This seminar aimed at discussing possible scenarios for promoting these types of cooperatives in Singaporean context, in taking into account challenges and opportunities that Singapore society is facing. During the seminar, global trends of worker and social cooperatives and freelancers’ cooperatives were presented by three CICOPA experts and discussions on possible scenarios were organized with various stakeholders on the issue.

The project will be finalized by Feburary 2019 by proposing recommendations to the Singapore governments and local stakeholders for developing and promoting worker and social cooperatives.