The cost of creating a single job in the cooperative sector is one third of that in other sectors, IRNA quoted a senior official at the ministry of cooperatives, labor and social welfare Alireza Nateghi as saying on Saturday. “The cooperative sector has the capacity to create jobs provided it enjoys resources similar to those of other ministries,” he added. The cooperative sector has created more than 1.5 million job opportunities across the country since the beginning of the 5th Five-Year Economic Development Plan, said deputy cooperatives minister Hamid Kalantari earlier this month, adding that there are more than 100,000 cooperatives and 680 unions active in different sectors nationwide. The general policies outlined in Article 44 of the Constitution are aimed at increasing the share of the cooperative sector in the national economy to 25 percent by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2011-2016).
