King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is scheduled to inaugurate the first Cooperative Societies Forum on Sunday evening at the InterContinental Hotel in the capital. The three-day forum will look at the development of cooperative societies' work in the Kingdom, and their use of information technology. Representatives from India, Egypt, South Korea, Singapore and Kuwait will relate their countries' experience in cooperative work, and representatives of Saudi Arabia will introduce working papers on their own experience. Yousuf Al-Othaimeen, Minister of Social Affairs, said the forum hoped to produce recommendations to support the work of cooperative societies in the Kingdom, describing their work as an important aspect of the national economy and a main element in local societies' development programs that are based on collective participation and local resources. Al-Othaimeen said the Kingdom was seeking to establish cooperative economic societies to help in the provision of reasonably-priced commodities, and that the ministry would soon acquire land for the construction of a dedicated establishment.
