ALOR SETAR, April 21 – Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Berhad (Angkasa) has volunteered to be an importer of rice from Thailand in an effort to ensure sufficient domestic supply.
Its president Datuk Seri Dr Abdul Fattah Abdullah said discussions on the matter had taken place earlier with cooperatives in neighbouring country when he attended the Asia Pacific Region Cooperative Business Office Meeting earlier this year.
“I have discussed with the Minister of Cooperatives of Thailand and we accepted the offer to get rice supplies from them…he agreed to offer to Angkasa, because he knows we are facing a rice problem.
“The matter is not easy as we already have concessions given by the government to a certain group, so we hope to negotiate with the government.
“We will take a portion of the segment for cooperative members only as we have over seven million members and we want to cater to these seven million people and this requires discussion with the higher authorities,” he said after officiating the Kedah Angkasa General Meeting on Saturday.
In the meantime, Abdul Fattah said Angkasa is now trying to explore new areas in order to achieve revenue of RM73 billion as targeted by the government by 2030.
He said, his organisation is confident that the target can be achieved by exploring information technology, food security and exploring new resources such as technology and electric vehicles.
