The Minister of Economy: Increasing the contribution of "cooperatives" to the state's GDP to 5% by 2031

The Minister of Economy, Abdullah bin Touq Al-Marri, revealed that the ministry was keen to include in the federal draft law on cooperatives articles and texts aimed at increasing the contribution of the cooperative sector to the gross domestic product of the UAE during the next ten years, from 0.5% at the end of last year 2021 to more than 5% by the end of 2031, pointing out that the sector provided job opportunities for about 13,000 people, of whom citizens constitute 6% of the total workers in cooperatives at the state level.

The Minister defined cooperatives as a self-assembly consisting of people who share common goals through which they seek to achieve their aspirations and goals to meet their various economic, social, cultural and other needs.

The minister said, in a video presentation he gave during the Federal National Council session, held this morning: "The axes of the new draft law on cooperatives include 10 main axes targeting improvement trends, namely, the freedom to expand and work inside and outside the country, the possibility of converting to companies, allowing non-citizens membership, Giving powers and competencies to local authorities in the emirates of the country, the strategic partner, offering stock options and studying voting power, listing cooperatives in the financial market, the possibility of the participation of the competent local authorities in defining the field of management, the possibility of government partnership with cooperatives or government agencies entering into cooperative memberships, contributing Membership in cash or in kind.

He added that: "The new law on cooperatives took into account the basic orientations of the UAE government regarding the flexibility of legislation, the most prominent of which is that the development of legal rules that regulate cooperatives in one law, the flexibility of the law in order to enable cooperatives to operate effectively, the government role was limited to setting the legal framework for regulating the work of cooperatives. and its activities, such as declaring and registering cooperative institutions, dissolving and liquidating them, and monitoring the implementation of cooperative law.

With regard to the current situation of cooperatives within the country, the minister stated that the number of cooperatives in the country has reached 43 cooperatives, with an activity volume of 7.9 billion dirhams, noting that the capital of these cooperatives amounts to 3.1 billion dirhams, contributed by about 100,000 contributors. Cooperatives employ about 13,000 employees.

According to the minister, cooperatives are divided into 7 different types, namely financial cooperatives, production cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, professional cooperatives, multi-stakeholder cooperatives, community cooperatives, and new forms and models of cooperatives (artificial smart digital).

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