Ministry of Social Affairs in the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia organized The Cooperative Societies Forum in Riyadh from 24 to 26 May 2009 with the objective of promoting the scope and potential of cooperatives in the biggest country in the GCC sub-region. ICA, an international organization committed for the promotion and development of co-operatives world over was invited to the forum to add a global perspective to the deliberations at the forum.

ICA is a global networking organization organized at the global, regional, sectoral and thematic levels. ICA as such is a world-wide representative of co-operative organizations of all kinds. The International Co-operative Alliance - Asia & Pacific is one of the operating regional offices of the ICA, the world confederation of co-operatives in existence since 1895 and presently head quartered in Geneva.

ICA has 225 member organizations worldwide from 87 countries of which 63 member organizations come from 23 countries in the Asia Pacific region. Over 530 million individual members get benefited from the services of these co-operatives in the Asia Pacific region.

Most of the members of ICA are national level co-operative organizations that serve all types of co-operatives operating in all sectors of national economies including those engaged in agricultural production and marketing, wholesale and retail, small and medium scale industries, financial services, insurance, housing, transport, health and other services.

ICA’s principal role is to provide forum for the global lobbying and advocacy for promotion and development of cooperatives and facilitate networking of ideas, experiences, concerns and trade among co-operatives through conferencing and obligatory meetings.
Over 530 million individual members get benefited from the services of these co-operatives in the Asia Pacific region.

ICA’s presence in the GCC sub-region was marked by the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies of Kuwait a couple of years ago and in the year 2007 the Ministry of Social Affairs, Government of UAE took a new initiative of expanding the scope and base of cooperatives in the GCC sub-region of Asia. The Ministry of Social Affairs , UAE organized two meetings of the Cooperative Forum in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the years 2007 and 2008 respectively and contributed in the ushering of cooperative era in prosperous part of the world.

Inspired by the lead of UAE Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia organized Cooperative Socieites Forum in Riyadh that was attended by more than 150 delegates from Saudi Arabia and other countries of the GCC sub-region like UAE, Kuwait, Yemen, Baharain and Oman.

On behalf of The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques, the forum was inaugurated by His Excellency the Minister of Social Affairs and addressed by key cooperators and scholars from Saudi Arabia and participating countries. Technical presentations on global cooperative perspective were made by resource persons from ICA Asia Pacific lead by its Regional Director Mr Shil Kwan Lee who hailed the proactive support and constructive role of the Saudi Arabia Governments in leveraging the strengths of well knit Saudi Arabia community by promoting formation of cooperatives to socially and economically empower the vulnerable sections of the society. Mr Lee was particularly happy to see the formation of National Cooperative Council of Saudi Arabia and advised both the officials of both the Cooperatives and the Ministry of Social affairs to move ahead in a modular manner and agreed to provide all needed support in mainstreaming the cooperatives in GCC with the global cooperative movement.