The parliament has tasked the government with increasing the share of cooperatives in gross domestic product to 25% by the end of the sixth 5-year economic development plan (2016-21).
“The Fifth Plan also envisaged a 25% share for cooperatives in the GDP, which is currently not more than 7%,” the head of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, Bahman Abdollahi, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
“Some 160,000 cooperatives have been registered in Iran, of which 110,000 are operating in 120 fields, including agriculture, services, housing, transportation and production, among others. The rest have been closed down due to financial problems.” Abdollahi noted that close to 20 million people are members of cooperatives, but only 2 million have found employment in the sector.
Development plans are devised by the government and ratified by parliament every five years since 1991. These are meant to provide the broad directions for a wide range of economic reforms and social priorities.
A cooperative refers to a firm owned, controlled and operated by a group of users for their own benefit. Each member contributes equity capital and shares in the control of the firm on the basis of one-member, one-vote principle (and not in proportion to his or her equity contribution).
According to the deputy minister of cooperatives, labor and social welfare, Hamid Kalantari, non-oil goods worth more than $1.7 billion were exported by the cooperatives sector in the last fiscal year (March 2015-16).
“We intend to increase this year’s exports to $2.5 billion,” Kalantari was quoted as saying in September.
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