The French Research and Technological Exchange Group (GRET) will spend 2.05 million EUR (US$3.2 million) on a project to develop cooperatives in Vietnam.

Under an agreement signed between GRET and the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Hanoi on June 27, the AID-coop project will assist the poor through strengthening and improving the role of cooperative organisations.

AID-coop will be carried out over 60 months to improve the legal framework on cooperative development at macro scale, set up an agency to develop new-model cooperatives and provide agricultural assistance services in the areas with difficulty.

The project will be piloted in the northern provinces of Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho and Ninh Binh.