140,000 cooperatives to be established in Iran

He made the remarks on Saturday during a meeting with the Malaysian Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Mohamed Khaled bin Nordin and his accompanying delegation in Tehran, saying that these cooperatives can create 2.4 million job opportunities.

Ardakani said that the cooperatives were established in accordance with the guidelines of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the government’s policies to execute the Article 44 of the Constitution.

“The first measure to be taken in this regard is to allocate the shares of governmental agencies (i.e. Rls.400,000 billion) to the governmental companies.

“In the second phase, the cooperative companies should embark on major economic activities such as steel and petrochemical industries and get involved in the construction of nuclear power plants,” the minister explained.

He also underlined that the cooperatives’ share in the governmental economy should reach 25% by the next 10 years.

Ardakani said that the present economic growth rate in Iran necessitates the structural participation of Iranian nation in all economic affairs, adding that this will be realized through cooperative companies.

The Iranian minister extolled Malaysia’s valuable experiences in the cooperative sector and called for the transfer of these experiences to Iran.

Elaborating on the current status of cooperative companies in Iran, Ardakani said “Presently, over 89,000 cooperative companies are involved in the economic activities in Iran, which are supported and organized by some 600 cooperatives unions.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, he called for the establishment of an Islamic cooperative bank to solve the financial problems of the cooperative companies in all Islamic countries.

The Malaysian Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development for his part pointed to the visit of the Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to his country saying that the main agreements were made in the cooperative sector.

Mohamed Khaled bin Nordin said that Iran and Malaysia hold similar viewpoints with regards to the cooperative sector and will develop relevant cooperation consequently.

He also suggested a joint committee to be formed under the supervision of both Iran and Malaysia to pursue and study different dimensions of the formation of an Islamic cooperative bank.

SA/MA

End

MNA