According to Badah Al-Dosari, the head of the Union of Cooperative Societies, the annual turnover of cooperative societies in Kuwait is one billion Kuwaiti dinars (roughly $3. 3 billion USD), and their cash flow can reach 400 million dinars (roughly $1. 2 billion USD) at times, making them one of the main investment hubs.
Al-Dosari added in a recent interview with Kuwait News Agency that the cooperative work faces numerous obstacles and challenges in achieving the mission and purpose for which it was founded through its social and marketing roles in front of its shareholders, the supervisory side, and the local market through parallel markets.
As the supplier must have an agency certified by the Agencies Chamber of the Ministry of Commerce for the items he supplies without the use of an intermediary, he claimed that cooperative societies are required to adhere to the tariff controls of the purchasing policy regarding imported consumer goods.
Regarding manufactured goods, he clarified that the association must work with businesses that already operate a factory to carry out the designated activity. Additionally, he said that because national labour is crucial to the development of state institutions, the state works to support and create job opportunities for this group in accordance with the Cabinet decision requiring that at least 10% of its workforce be made up of citizens.
The Ministerial Resolution No. 25/T of 2021 regarding support for the promotion of the local agricultural product is one of the forms of legislative support for the Kuwaiti agricultural product, he noted, noting that cooperative societies are eager to allocate spaces for them in the investing branches in order to achieve grants and provide space for national products and small projects. the regional.
According to Al-Dosari, the cooperative society has access to a variety of control mechanisms, including price comparisons between cooperatives and parallel markets and strict adherence to the Union of Cooperative Societies’ circulars.
He emphasised that, in contrast to cooperative societies, which work to lower the costs of goods and services in their societies and hold a variety of marketing events throughout the year, the union collectively opposes any company’s propensity to invent any price increase in an unnatural or illogical manner.
Al-Dosari emphasised the significance of the role of women in society and their involvement in the cooperative movement at a time when the law guarantees their right to vote and to run in association elections. We sincerely hope that they will be appointed to positions on the boards of directors of cooperative societies to further their involvement in the cooperative movement.
“Union of Societies”: Our annual sales are one billion dinars, and our cash flow is 400 million.
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