Historical Background

     In 1915, a year before the first cooperative was introduced to Thailand,the Cooperative Section was established under the Ministry of Finance responsible for cooperative promotion. With an increasing role of cooperatives in the Thai economy, the Cooperative Section was transformed to be Cooperative Department under Ministry of Commerce in 1920, then becoming the Ministry of Cooperatives in 1952.

The reorganization of the government agencies in 1963 caused the abolishment of Ministry of Cooperatives and the establishment of Ministry of National Development in substitution. Under the new Ministry, there were three newly established departments responsible for all previous cooperative duties as follows: Land Cooperative Department, Cooperative Auditing Department and Trade and Finance Cooperative Department.
Again, the reorganization in 1972, the Ministry of National Development was abolished and replaced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. All cooperative works, except duties under the Cooperative Auditing Department, were merged together under the new department named Cooperative Promotion Department (CPD) and attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

In 2002, the internal reorganization of Cooperative Promotion Department took placed according to the Regulations of Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. It resulted in the changes of roles, duties and responsibilities.