Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 2.djvu/214

 114 STAT. 1096 PUBLIC LAW 106-309 —OCT. 17, 2000 22 USC 2462 SEC. 306. EFFECTIVE DATE. °* '^* This title shall take effect October 1, 2000. TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS Support for SEC. 401. SUPPORT FOR OVERSEAS COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT ACT. Coo^r^ive (^) SHORT TITLE.— This section may be cited as the "Support Development Act. for Overseas Cooperative Development Act". 22 USC 2151 (b) FINDINGS. —The Congress makes the following findings: 22*USC 21511 ^^^ ^^ ^® ^^ *^® mutual economic interest of the United note. States and peoples in developing and transitional countries to promote cooperatives and credit unions. (2) Self-help institutions, including cooperatives and credit unions, provide enhanced opportunities for people to participate directly in democratic decision-making for their economic and social benefit through ownership and control of business enterprises and through the mobilization of local capitsJ and savings and such organizations should be fully utilized in fostering free market principles and the adoption of self-help approaches to development. (3) The United States seeks to encourage broad-based economic and social development by creating and supporting— (A) agricultural cooperatives that provide a means to lift low income farmers and rural people out of poverty and to better integrate them into national economies; (B) credit union networks that serve people of limited means through safe savings and by extending credit to families and microenterprises; (C) electric and telephone cooperatives that provide rural customers with power and telecommunications services essential to economic development; (D) housing and community-based cooperatives that provide low income shelter and work opportunities for the urban poor; and (E) mutual and cooperative insurance companies that provide risk protection for life and property to under-served populations often through group policies. (c) GENERAL PROVISIONS.— 22 USC 21511 (1) DECLARATIONS OF POLICY.— The Congress supports the note. development and expansion of economic assistance programs that fully utilize cooperatives and credit unions, particularly those programs committed to— (A) international cooperative principles, democratic governance and involvement of women and ethnic minorities for economic and social development; (B) self-help mobilization of member savings and equity and retention of profits in the community, except for those programs that are dependent on donor financing; (C) market-oriented and value-added activities with the potential to reach large numbers of low income people and help them enter into the mainstream economy; (D) strengthening the participation of rural and urban poor to contribute to their country's economic development; and

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