Co-operatives around the world play an important part of the economical game, contributing important portions of various countries’ GDPs.

Further to that, and probably more importantly, co-operatives are a testament to the ideal balance between the necessity of being profitable, and the needs and aspirations of the workers within the organisation.

In recognition of all this, today the world is celebrating International Co-operatives Day, highlighting how the co-operative model of enterprise can successfully inspire and empower youths. It links to the celebration of the United Nations International Year of Youth, which concludes in August 2011, just prior to the launch of the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives 2012.

The message behind this year’s International Year of Co-operatives is that youths need to learn about this socio-economic reality which offers them a boatload of opportunities. Too often, young people around the world, and equally locally, are not aware of the co-operative model of enterprise. This might be due to the fact that they might not be sufficiently informed about it in their schooling years in preparation to their professional lives. Young people may even not be aware that many products and services they use on an everyday basis are produced and brought to them by co-operatives.

Yet co-operatives address young people’s practical and strategic needs with several opportunities. The co-operative model offers young people a way of doing business, a method of reaching their entrepreneurial aspirations in a more democratic, responsible and ethical way.

The social media boom the world has been experiencing in the last years, and the active participation youths are taking in this phenomenon, offers unprecedented opportunities for the co-operative movement. The co-operative is a model that embodies collaborative forms of action that are appealing to this emerging generation.

The co-operative model offers young people the opportunity to gain professional employment experience, to participate in decision-making processes, to build their own economic activity and generally reach their aspirations. All this happened within a framework of sustainability, respect, dialogue and sound values.

Speaking in this regard this week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged the co-operative movement to engage with youth, in a spirit of dialogue and mutual understanding. He urged stakeholders of the movement to recognise young women and men as valuable partners in strengthening the movement and in sustaining the role of co-operatives in social and economic development.

Locally we are striving to reach this goal precisely. We want more young people to be informed about this model, and consider it when making their business planning choices. The activity of the sector in the last months has been encouraging. n the coming days we shall be distributing registration certificates to six new co-operatives that are starting their journey in six different sectors of business. These new members will be joining the 57-member strong family of co-operatives in Malta. The uniting factor is that they chose the co-operative model to do business in. We find this greatly encouraging, and it inspires us to strive further.

Dr Jason Azzopardi is parliamentary secretary in the Finance Ministry