(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Shin Seon-mi = The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Nonghyup) announced on the 21st that a "Nonghyup Innovation Committee" composed mainly of external members from academia and farmer organizations will be launched next month. The Nonghyup Innovation Committee will be tasked with analyzing the issues within Nonghyup from an objective perspective and discovering tasks for innovation to improve them. The Nonghyup Innovation Committee is set to review matters such as the election method for the central committee chairman, the scope of roles and responsibilities of the central committee chairman, improvement plans for the operation of ex officio positions, as well as improvement plans for the election systems of the chairpersons and executive members of regional agricultural and livestock cooperatives. It will also consider the establishment of a separate recommendation committee for appointing audit committee members and cooperative audit committee members, as well as plans to make the selection of external members mandatory. Nonghyup plans to draw up and announce detailed plans for the operation of the Nonghyup Innovation Committee, including the selection of external members. Additionally, Nonghyup has decided to set further innovation tasks, including the results and improvement measures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries audits. A Nonghyup official stated, "It embodies the will to diagnose the root causes of Nonghyup issues from an external perspective and to transparently transform the foundation of the organization, from its governance structure to its internal control system." To support the government's reform tasks, Nonghyup has decided to swiftly implement follow-up measures to ensure that the Nonghyup reform bill, which was recently discussed and decided upon by the National Assembly's Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Food (Nonghaesu Committee), takes root in the field. According to the revision of the Agricultural Cooperatives Act decided by the National Assembly's Nonghaesu Committee on the 19th, the election method for cooperative chairpersons will be unified, and the term limit for non-standing chairpersons will be restricted to two terms. Additionally, the revision includes a reduction in the external accounting audit cycle for agricultural and livestock cooperatives from the current four years to annually or biennially.