HANOI, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development along with the Vietnam Farmers' Union and the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance have signed a coordination program to implement the top legislature's target of having 15,000 agricultural cooperatives and cooperative alliances operating effectively by 2020.

The ministry and the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance have issued a joint resolution continuing reforming and developing cooperation in agriculture in the 2016-2020 period and signed collaboration programs with 39 provinces nationwide, Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday.

The two sides have worked together to train managerial officials of cooperatives, support them to make business plans, connect businesses and cooperatives and build chains of safe food stores.

The ministry and the Vietnam Farmers' Union also inked a pact in 2013 helping farmers develop agricultural economy and build new rural areas in the 2012-2020 period.

The Vietnam Farmers' Union has opened 14,700 training courses for 734,600 members of the union, cooperatives and cooperative alliances, and provided vocational training for 362,000 workers in rural areas over the past six years.

In 2017, Vietnam had about 4,400 effective agricultural cooperatives.