His Excellency the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, Eng. Ahmad bin Sulaiman AlRajhi, met today via videoconference with the employees of the cooperative sector, in the presence of a number of Ministry officials, as part of the initiative of His Excellency the Minister's meetings with citizens and stakeholders.

The meeting began with a speech by His Excellency the Minister, in which he praised the importance of the role of the cooperative sector as it plays a vital role in promoting economic and social development, which was represented in achieving the ambitious goals for the year 2023, as the cooperative sector recorded a growth in the number of cooperatives by 96% compared to the previous five years, bringing the total number of cooperatives around the Kingdom to 479 cooperatives, distributed across various sectors. His Excellency indicated a number of efforts made to enhance international and local cooperation through fruitful partnerships with leading international organizations such as the International Labor Organization and the International Cooperative Alliance, and launching paths to develop the sector, such as the economic and social empowerment path. His Excellency the Minister also congratulated everyone on the adoption of the first strategy for the cooperative sector, which aims to create a thriving and effective cooperative environment that contributes to creating innovative economic opportunities, and creating a regulatory and legislative environment that keeps pace with the growth aspirations of cooperatives. His Excellency the Minister expressed in his speech his happiness to meet with the employees of the cooperative sector and relevant authorities to discuss and review the integrated work to develop the cooperative sector.

Then, the Director-General of the General Department of Cooperative Societies at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Maan bin Ali Al-Anqari, delivered a speech in which he thanked His Excellency the Minister on behalf of the employees of the cooperative sector for providing the opportunity to meet with His Excellency and discuss the aspirations and goals of the cooperative sector. He then reviewed the most prominent achievements of the cooperative sector, highlighting the many positive indicators and strategic goals achieved in line with the ambitious plan. He emphasized the importance of the cooperative sector's role, as it plays a vital part in enhancing economic and social development. He also praised the targets achieved in 2023, where the cooperative sector contributed 2.2 billion Saudi Riyals to the GDP, with a growth rate exceeding 91% over the past five years. The Ministry has made significant efforts to strengthen both international and local cooperation through establishing several fruitful partnerships. He pointed out that these achievements confirm the genuine desire to strengthen the cooperative sector and exchange expertise in order to achieve further successes and mutual progress in the future. Al-Anqari reviewed the available opportunities to develop and enable the sector to contribute to development and achieve future goals by increasing the number of cooperatives to reach 1,000, providing more than 100,000 new job opportunities by the end of the strategy, and growing the sector's contribution to the gross domestic product to reach 9 billion Saudi Riyals by 2030 by implementing the cooperative sector strategy that was approved at the beginning of this year, in addition to developing the cooperative work system to enhance the quality of services provided in a way that contributes to improving the quality of life and meeting the needs of society effectively.

At the end of the meeting, the floor was opened for discussion and dialogue, and His Excellency listened to everyone's views, observations, ways of development, and addressing challenges. His Excellency the Minister also thanked all the sector's employees for their efforts that contributed to achieving the achievements.