The Ministry of Economy, UAE and the International Cooperatives Alliance (ICA) through its Asia and Pacific Regional Office sign a cooperation agreement to develop and strengthen the cooperative sector in the country.

This is a translated version of the originally published piece in Arabic at moec.gov.ae.

His Excellency Abdullah Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy: The cooperative sector is an important tributary to the diversification of the national economy. The agreement is a new step within the state’s strategy to achieve qualitative and sustainable development in the sector in accordance with international best practices

• Working through the agreement to develop proactive, flexible legislation that would further enable the cooperative model and regulate its governance
• Preparing a comprehensive strategy for the cooperative sector, enhancing its opportunities, monitoring its challenges, diversifying its sectors, and increasing its contribution to the country’s GDP to reach 5% by 2031.
• Initiatives to consolidate cooperative thinking, awareness campaigns and programs to introduce the model of cooperatives, and development of human capabilities in the sector
• 42 cooperatives in the country in 2020, with 200 outlets and branches all over the country, and the total capital of the cooperatives is worth 3.1 billion dirhams, and more than one billion dirhams in net profits

The Ministry of Economy and the International Cooperatives Alliance (through its Asia and Pacific Regional Office), the largest international organization concerned with cooperatives, signed a cooperation agreement to develop and strengthen the cooperative sector in the country, within the framework of the ministry's strategy to improve the performance of the cooperative sector in the country and increase its contribution to the national economy. The agreement was signed on the part of the Ministry of Economy by His Excellency Abdullah Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry, and on the part of the International Cooperative Alliance, by Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director of the Asia and Pacific Regional Office.

His Excellency Abdullah Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy, said that the agreement will enhance the work environment of the cooperative sector in the country to new levels, and ICA will work through it to contribute to the development of proactive and flexible legislation that achieves further empowerment of the cooperatives model and the regulation of their governance. It aims to enhance the readiness of the cooperative work environment in the country and increase its contribution to the growth of the country's non-oil GDP. His Excellency pointed out that this agreement serves the Ministry’s objectives and its integrated strategy to achieve qualitative development in the cooperative sector and achieve a direct impact in increasing its role in the diversity and competitiveness of the national economy.

His Excellency Al Saleh added: "The cooperative sector plays a pivotal role in achieving the goals of sustainable economic and social development for the United Arab Emirates, and is an important tributary to the competitiveness and diversification of the national economy. To improve its performance per the best international practices and enhance its role in the new economic model of the country, the country has achieved regional leadership in developing the cooperative model and providing the environment and policies that stimulate its growth.”

His Excellency Al Saleh pointed out that the UAE was one of the first countries in the region to allow the listing and trading of cooperative shares in its financial markets, in a step that enhances the leadership and competitiveness of Emirati cooperatives regionally and globally, and allows activating and deepening its role in supplying the economic sectors in the country and supporting its shareholders, adding: "We continue our efforts today to complete the development plan for the cooperative sector to take its deserved role as one of the drivers of diversity, sustainability, innovation, high productivity and the transformation towards the future economy in the UAE."

For his part, Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director of the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific, said, “Cooperatives align well with the UAE Centennial pillars which call for the government to be supportive and future looking, building a diversified economy, promoting values in education, and building a happy and inclusive society. Through our engagement, we will bring in international experiences, and showcase relevant models from different countries. Our approach will be to help promote the cooperative model, increase awareness, help engage youth and women, build capacity and in the process increase visibility and contribution of cooperatives in the UAE.”  

Through this agreement, the Ministry of Economy aims to build a comprehensive strategy, the first of its kind, to develop the cooperative sector in the UAE during the next phase. The federal and local supervisors of the sector in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy will follow up on the implementation of the objectives and items of the strategy and promote joint work between the ministry and its partners to support the cooperative sector in the country and improve its performance. The strategy for developing the cooperative sector in the country is based on three phases.

Phase 1: It includes developing the cooperative sector in the country and assessing the current situation of the cooperative sector in the United Arab Emirates, through the formation of work teams from the Ministry of Economy and the ICA to work jointly in developing the legislative system for cooperatives, in addition to strengthening research and development activities. The first phase will also include training workshops that will be available to all and will focus on introducing the importance of the cooperative sector and its role in supporting the national economy, as well as introducing how to establish cooperatives in the country.

Phase 2: The second phase will work on conducting comprehensive studies aimed at developing the cooperative sector, enhancing opportunities, monitoring challenges and ways to diversify the priority sectors through which cooperatives carry out their activities in cooperation with partners, as well as developing an effective strategy to increase the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP to reach up to 5% by 2031.

Phase 3: The third phase will focus on qualifying the cadres working in the cooperative sector, raising their awareness of the international best practices, and developing the human capacities of the local authorities and departments in the country with regard to policies, law enforcement and monitoring the performance of cooperatives, through training courses. In addition to launching initiatives and business incubators to accelerate the growth of the next generation of cooperative entrepreneurs, training and academic curricula will be developed for students to consolidate cooperative thinking that addresses cooperative principles. Campaigns and awareness programs will be launched at the state level to define cooperatives and their importance, in cooperation with the concerned government agencies, federally and locally, and in partnership with the private sector. The agreement will last for 18 months.

The number of cooperative societies in their various forms in the United Arab Emirates reached about 42, including 20 consumer societies, 13 fishermen, 7 societies in other fields, two cooperative unions, and 200 outlets and branches all over the country by the end of 2020, while the total capital of cooperatives amounted to 3.1 billion dirhams. The net profit amounted to more than one billion dirhams at the end of the same year, while the number of shareholders in cooperatives amounted to about 97,000 contributing members until the end of 2020.

Founded in 1895, the  International Cooperative  Alliance is one of the oldest non-governmental organizations and the largest global cooperative organization with members from 112 countries operating in various economic sectors, most notably agriculture, banking, consumer services, fisheries, health services, housing, insurance, industry and the service sector. The ICA unites and represents 3 million cooperatives worldwide, and works to provide services to more than 1 billion members. It also works with governments, and global and regional organizations to provide legislative environments that allow the establishment and growth of cooperatives.