The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, the nation’s leading financial cooperative, has been strengthening global cooperation with its foreign counterparts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federation said Tuesday.

Under KFCC President Park Cha-hoon’s initiative, the financial cooperative has been exchanging messages with cooperatives around the world via Facebook and Twitter to encourage each other to stay strong during the pandemic. A total of 21 foreign cooperatives in China, Japan and India have participated in the movement so far, officials said.

In October the KFCC also hosted a virtual exchange program with its Thai counterpart, the Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives of Thailand, to strengthen the partnership between the two institutions and share ideas on business management. The videoconferencing session facilitated real-time interaction between employees in South Korea and Thailand.

As part of its global outreach initiative, the KFCC is also supporting people in developing countries affected by the pandemic, officials said.

Employees at Myanmar Saemaul Geumgo -- a financial cooperative established in 2017 by the Myanmar government through the KFCC’s management support of its financial systems and business models -- distributed masks and hand sanitizer to local communities, while those at Uganda Saemaul Geumgo delivered food supplies to local residents, they explained. Saemaul Geumgo, or the Korean Village Bank, is a community based financial institition supervised by the KFCC.

“The KFCC has been striving to narrow ‘distance of hearts,’ by exchanging a meaningful message and to strengthen ties for the post-COVID-19 era,” a KFCC official said.

The KFCC is a member of the European Association of Co-operative Banks -- the world’s largest cooperative banking cluster, promoting the common interests of its 27 member institutions and of cooperative banks.

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)