Cooperatives become executors to accelerate the realization of village food empowerment programs

Jakarta – Minister of Cooperatives (Menkop) Ferry Juliantono said that cooperatives will implement instruments in the field, especially the Red and White Village/Subdistrict Cooperatives (Kopdes/Kel) through synergy in the Government Strategic Program (PSP). According to him, cooperatives are not only people’s economic institutions, but also as government partners to accelerate the realization of food, energy and village empowerment programmes. “Currently we are entering an era of renewal of the cooperative movement, an era where cooperatives must not be just administrative organizations. Instead, they must become a people’s economic movement that is modern, professional and highly competitive,” he said in a written statement, Wednesday (22/10/2025). He expressed this when he attended the coordination meeting of the government’s Strategic Program Acceleration Task Force (P2SP) chaired by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, in Jakarta. Present at the meeting were Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, Minister of Tourism Widiyanti Putri Wardhana, Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid, Minister of UMKM Maman Abdurrahman, Head of BP BUMN Dony Oskaria and a number of heads of other Ministries/Institutions. SCROLL TO CONTINUE CONTENT Ferry continued that all parties must be able to become a driving force for change, overseeing the transformation of cooperatives to digitization, strengthening governance and expanding business networks. “We want cooperatives not only to be present on the outskirts of the economy, but to stand on an equal footing with big business actors and become an integral part of the national, even global, supply chain,” said the minister of cooperatives. He added that Kopdes Merah Putih’s warehouses and outlets throughout Indonesia were under construction by PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara. “Currently, about 1,000 land points are available to build the Kopdes Merah Putih and will be built soon,” he said. Regarding land availability, he explained that he is currently still in the process of identifying available land for Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih. “The target is that all the land needed will be identified by the end of November,” he said. He admitted that it will take hard work to get 2,000 points per day so that everything will be completed by March 2026. “As far as this development is concerned, adjustments must be made to PMK 49 and PMK 63,” he said. Furthermore, he explained that the presence of more than 80 thousand Red and White Village/District Cooperatives as a strategic government program would absorb a workforce of at least approximately 681 people (as of September 14, 2025). “By December 2025, we are targeting more than one million people, or approximately 1.385 million people,” he said. His party also opened recruitment for the 2025 Kopdes Merah Putih program for 9,104 positions. Among them there are 8,000 Business Assistant positions, 76 provincial Project Management Office (PMO) people and 1,028 district/city PMO people. Also watch the video ‘Red and White Village Cooperative, Solution for Village Economic Transformation’: (akd/ega)