Menkop Ferry Juliantono Ensures Kopdes Standards Form Affordable Modern Village Services

Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliantono ensured that the Red and White Village Cooperative standards were designed as President Prabowo Subianto's mandate to ensure that all outlets in villages and sub-districts have uniform, modern, and easily accessible service quality for the community.

"Why should it be standard outlets? The President wants the village community to get necessities at affordable prices, and we have our own outlets," said Ferry as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, November 18.

He explained that these standards do not limit creativity, because each cooperative is still given space to develop local potentials such as crafts, culinary arts, and tourism according to the character of the respective village economy.

However, the existence of uniform outlets is considered important so that rural communities get basic needs at affordable prices, as well as get access to modern retail which is managed directly by local cooperatives.

He said, through the planned 80,000 outlets, the government wants products produced by villages and domestic production, including SOEs, to be widely marketed through the village cooperative network.

"The hope is that with 80,000 outlets we can produce the goods produced by the village community itself or from any domestic production of BIMN to be sold in outlets in village cooperatives," he said.

Mankop also said President Prabowo asked every Kopdes to have a pharmacy and village clinic as an effort to provide affordable health services so that rural communities can access medicines and medical facilities without the need for long trips.

Even warehouse facilities were also prepared because the cooperative served as a reservoir for production, equipped with cold storage, a temperature control system, and a dryer to maintain the quality of village commodities before they were marketed.

In addition, the government added that logistics vehicle facilities so that the mobility of goods from the village to the outside, or vice versa, could run smoothly and support the stability of the distribution of community needs as a whole.

The policy was prepared based on the real needs of the village community who still need affordable retail, health, and logistics services so that the Kopdes building standards are made following the principles of benefit and efficiency.

The Coordinating Minister said that basic food outlets in Kopdes are designed to be managed like modern retailers with orderly sales management, competitive prices, and providing various basic needs for all villagers.

"So this mandate is indeed based on the President seeing that people in this rural area still need some of these things so that the standard of physical use is also adjusted like that," he explained.

Dia menambahkan, seluruh barang yang dijual nantinya diproduksi oleh masyarakat desa, koperasi kota atau provinsi, serta perusahaan dalam negeri, sehingga menghadirkan ekonomi gotong royong yang memperkuat kesejahteraan desa secara berkelanjutan.

He added that all goods sold will be produced by the village community, city or provincial cooperatives, as well as domestic companies, thus presenting a mutual cooperation economy that strengthens the welfare of the village in a sustainable manner.