UAE Minister pushes for co-op merger

The Minister of Social Affairs said that cooperatives still have to open up and embrace a social role.

Mariam Al Roumi, Minister of Social Affairs, called for a merger of various cooperative societies across the country to enhance their competitiveness in the market.

Ms Al Roumi said, “The ministry is not hunting down cooperatives or demeaning their value, nor is it standing in the way of their activity or impeding it: the relation between cooperatives and the Ministry is determined by the law.”

The core matter of conflict is that some cooperatives are requesting the number of votes be limited in accordance with the number of shares owned by each member.

“As with any relationship, matters of disagreement are healthy”, said Ms Al Roumi, is against the limitation of votes. This, she added, was contradictory to cooperative work.

Ms Al Roumi said that cooperatives still have to open up and embrace a social role. Some still refuse to open branches outside their emirate of origin.

She said amendments had been brought to the Cooperatives Law, which was forwarded to the Ministry of Justice, emphasising the possibility of opening branches outside the home emirate and the participation of local governments.

Ms Al Roumi insisted she did not want cooperatives to turn into commercial entities, as the principles of cooperative work would be lost.