The main goal of the project is to present the cooperative principles, including a historical outline of their origins and experiences from EU countries. And the objective is not so much to promulgate those principles on the farmers and managers but, to enhance the appreciation of the linkage between simple democratic postulates and the means by which cooperatives seek to serve those desired ends.The target group will be cooperatives , including the member’s farmers and the managers of cooperatives which include total number of 150 people included in the project activities. And also expert from AKOM as well 2 experts from the Ministry will participate in the project activities.The general goal is to transfer the knowledge for modern cooperative principles which include the following descriptive terms: democratic, voluntary, autonomous, equitable, mutual, universal, and evolutionary principle.

• To advocate cooperative principles and work on solving issues pertinent to management in cooperatives.

• To train the managers of cooperatives and experts to understand  democratically owned businesses, with a strong accent on governance and management issues.

• To enable the farmers members of cooperatives to run their businesses in a democratic manner

• To improve the communication between the stakeholders from the government and cooperatives

Represented by Dejan Lazarov AKOM have participated on the of the final phase of the project "Sattelite accounts for cooperatives and mutuals". The overall objective of the project is to establish satellite accounts on cooperatives and mutuals in the State Statistical Office of Macedonia and thus to improve their institutional visibility. The project will also contribute to the exhaustiveness of sets of data for the economy and for providing information and indicators to the stakeholders and decision makers for the share of cooperatives and mutuals in the national economy and producing of data comparable on national and European level.
Another project purpose is to ensure further sustainable approach to the EU statistics. It will ensure further assistance to harmonize statistical areas (statistics on employment, social statistics and preparation of Register on cooperatives and mutuals) according to the EU standards. The project shall also contribute towards enhancing internal activities that support statistical production and statistical dissemination. http://www.stat.gov.mk/pdf/EvropskiProekti/SAT21122010ang_lekt.pdf

On the pre constitutional meeting on 20 April 2010 in Skopje organized by AKOM there were more than 25 representatives of cooperatives in Macedonia also representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Water Economy and other representatives from the agriculture associations.

On this meeting AKOM present the plan of activities for 2010-2011 and open a call for any cooperative to become a new member, also announce the constitutional meeting in June 2010.

The representatives of cooperatives greeted AKOM as an organization that is needed for further development of cooperative movement.

On the debate after the presentation there were many questions appointed to the Ministry representatives. Some of them were about the annual financial revision, the bank security for buyout of products and ect. The Ministry further more will deliver answers after consultation with their authorities.

Conference in Zagreb, Croatia 19.03.2010

On 18.03.2010 in Zagreb, Croatia a conference “ZADRUGARSTVO – IZAZOV U KRIZI” was held in hotel Westin. A representative from AKOM- Mr. Dejan Lazarov was representing the Macedonian cooperatives on this conference.

Around 160 participants from all over Croatia and Balkan region were participating on this conference.

In today's global trends in time of crisis in all the presentations participants have clearly defined the needs of the cooperative organization. History shows us that it is precisely in times of crisis cooperatives experienced a boom in development and work. Crisis force people to cooperate and unite and the best model to do business are cooperatives. Support for the cooperative way of doing business on a global level given the UN, ILO, World Bank and other relevant institutions.

Workshop on "WesternBalkans: enlargement and avenues for cooperation", Portoroz,Slovenia 06.11.2009

Participants from AKOM and SFARM3 project , Dejan Lazarov and Zoran Todorovski took a part in the workshop organized by the Slovenian Union of Cooperatives and TAIEX, or the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange is an instrument of the Directorate-General Enlargement of the European Commission.

The highlights of the workshop are some of thiese main points.

Cooperatives constitute a more resilient type of enterprise in this economic crisis.

Nevertheless, farmers are facing an unprecedented loss of their profitability at the farm level, setting at risk their financial viability.

Thus it is unavoidable that there will be also significant consequences to cooperatives in the long run as well. What is at stake, concerns the membership base of cooperatives, as well as their ability to raise funds and increase their equity capital base (share capital).

Earlier in the morning we have had a presentation of the main guidelines of the CAP as well as we got some understanding of the diving forces concerning its evolution in the future. A framework of increased production and market opportunities will go hand in hand with increased competitive environment and multiple restrictions imposed from the new challenges that we are now facing.

In addition to that we have been informed of the most recent developments concerning the policy for producer organisations (for cooperatives as well) in some of the sectors that interest our cooperatives in this region the most (Fruit and vegetables, wine and olive oil). In those sectors, measures of their respective  the Common Market Organisation (CMO) support and co-finance the setting-up and the major operation of the Producer Organisation in order to promote their market position through quality and service improved as well as adoption of better methods of management and marketing. 

Finally, Cogeca pursues a cluster of political objectives that aim to promote the competitiveness of European agri-cooperatives so that they enhance their position in the food chain.

With an intensive but constructive round table debate, we have received some feedback of what are the challenges faced by cooperative organisations in the countries of Western Balkans, We heard of their progress along the development of the retail and food-industry market environment prevailing in the respective countries. There some positive developments but still many, institutional, structural and resource problems need to be addressed.  

On thiese workshop we establish working contacts with all union of cooperatives in Ex-Yugoslavia republics.