7.1 The definition for cooperatives in Bangladesh, India and Malaysia is purely a legal definition. It states that: “Cooperative society means a society registered or deemed to be registered under any law relating to Cooperative Societies for the time being on force in any State”.
7.2 Under Fijian Cooperative Law a cooperative has been defined as “cooperative means an association of persons who have voluntarily joined together to achieve a common end thought the formation of a democratically controlled organization, making equitable contributions to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risks and benefits of the undertaking in which the members actively participate, which is provisionally or fully registered under this Act as primary or secondary cooperative, apex organizations or the National Cooperatives registered according to the provisions of this act”.
7.3 Under The Indonesian Cooperative Law: "Cooperative (society) means an economic organization of the people with a social content (character) having persons or legal cooperative societies as members, farming economic entity as a collective endeavor based upon mutual help (Article 3). The law also define the functions of cooperatives under Article 4:
7.4 The Cooperative code of the Philippines under article 3 states the general concept of a
cooperative as follows:
“A cooperative is a duly registered association of persons with a common bond of
interest, who have voluntarily joined together to achieve a lawful common social or
economic end, making equitable contributions to the capital required and accepting a fair
share of the risks and benefits of the undertaking in accordance with universally accepted
cooperative principles”.
In the Philippines the law also provides the objective of cooperatives: “The primary
objective of every cooperative is to provide goods and services to its members and thus
enable them to attain increased income and savings, investments, productivity, and
purchasing powers and promote among them equitable distribution of net surplus
through maximum utilization of economies of scale, cost-sharing and risk sharing
without, however, conducting the affairs of the cooperatives for eleemosynary or
charitable purposes”.
7.5 A Cooperative shall provide maximum economic benefits to its members, teach them efficient ways of doing things in a cooperatives manner, and propagate cooperative practices and new ideas in business and management and allow the lower income group to increase their ownership in the wealth of this nation.
7.6 The Thai Cooperative Law defines a cooperative society as: “a group of persons who jointly conduct affairs for mutual assistance and are registered under this act”.