Establishing cooperative grocery stores could be one of the effective solutions in curbing the growing inflation in Saudi Arabia, said a high-ranking official of a leading cooperative society in Riyadh. Dr. Nasir Al-Twain, Chairman, Cooperative Society, King Saud University, said Saudi Arabia was required to develop a culture of cooperative societies that play a significant role in the lives of common citizens with limited income in various other countries. Dr. Al-Twain was speaking to Saudi Gazette after jointly addressing a press conference Sunday with Dr. Awadh Al-Radadi, Deputy Minister of Social Development, Ministry of Social Affairs, to announce the first-ever international conference of cooperative societies this November. Representatives from 160 cooperative societies now operating within the Kingdom and various others from across the world including Swiss-based International Cooperative Alliance will be invited to attend the conference. Saudi Arabia could learn management of cooperative grocery stores on marginal profits, which has been one of the activities of cooperative societies in other parts of the world, Dr. Al-Twain said. He said every third person in Japan is a member of a cooperative society. There are around 330 million members to roughly 500,000 cooperative societies in India, he added. “We, in Saudi Arabia, need to work with public-private sectors together by creating awareness among the people about cooperative societies. “The Social Ministry is all supportive to around 160 cooperative societies now operating in the Kingdom,” he said. Dr. Al-Twain said Cooperative Society-KSU is all set to launch a cooperative limousine service for the disabled students, limited income individuals and women. It would be a pioneering project that cost the Society SR200,000. “It will be the first such transport service in the Kingdom available for the needy and run by a cooperative society,” he said, adding that a contact number would be announced soon after launch of the service. __
