UAE to get cooperative schools for low cost education soon

Abu Dhabi: The UAE will have cooperative schools and other professional cooperatives to cope with social and economic challenges, a top official said on Sunday.

"The UAE will diversify cooperative societies and plans to have cooperative schools for low cost education and other professional cooperative societies to help broaden the base of people who can voluntarily and equally associate to boost their economic and social interests," Mariam Al Roumi, Minister of Social Affairs, told Gulf News.

"We are discussing the idea with the Ministry of Education and these schools will help students work primarily in cooperative learning groups, teachers and staff work in cooperative teams, offering quality education at affordable cost."

She said fairness and transparency are the hallmarks of cooperative actions and in the quest of fair globalisation, cooperatives should work in diverse sectors such as construction of infrastructure, health care, education, tourism, hospitality and insurance.

The UAE has 100 cooperative societies and branches, mostly consumer cooperatives and the members of cooperatives account for only 4 per cent of the population.

Al Roumi was speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of the Second Cooperatives Forum, held in cooperation with the International Cooperative Alliance Asia pacific under the theme "Towards Better Governance and Social Responsibility."

Redefining

Earlier, the minister told the forum that while the government plans to strengthen cooperatives, this will not be at the expense of the private sector "which remains the cornerstone of economic development in the country."

Ivano Barberini, President of the International Cooperative Alliance, told the forum it is a duty of members of cooperatives to rethink the role of the cooperative enterprise, by redefining its mission, strategy and structure to meet its social responsibility.

"Cooperatives are adept in finding solutions to the needs of the most disadvantaged segment of population, which are usually not met by public or private enterprises, creating sustainable employment and helping to develop areas with economic difficulties."

First set up in sharjah

The law on cooperative societies took effect in 1967, with the Sharjah Cooperative Society shortly being founded as the first consumer society in the country.

Number of shareholders in the cooperatives in the country 35,000 representing 4 per cent of the total population.

In 2006, the turnover of the consumer cooperative societies totalled Dh2 billion representing 4.5 per cent of the retail business in the country amounting to Dh44 billion.

In order to be able to play an effective role in controlling the prices, the societies should achieve a turnover of at least Dh20 billion by expanding the basis of shareholders through opening subscription.