ARDEBIL Cooperatives Minister Morteza Haji said here Monday that over 1.4 million people are currently employed in the cooperatives sector. Haji said while inaugurating some projects implemented by the cooperatives sector that there are more than 45,000 cooperatives companies in the industrial, mining and production sectors with a total membership of nine million. He said that when the membership in the service sector is added to this figure, the total exceeds 14 million. The minister said that the cooperatives is an important sector and, under equal conditions, can well compete with the state-run sector in the economic field. He called for more attention to the cooperatives sector.