Mendes proposes to stop new minimarket permits so that the Red and White Kopdes can live

JAKARTA - Minister of Villages and Regional Development (Mendes PDT) Yandri Susanto proposed that the government stop granting permits for the establishment of new minimarkets in order to revive the village residents' business units and the Red and White Village Cooperative (Kopdes).

According to Mendes Yandri, the proposal was received from public complaints, especially grocery store traders in villages who are losing out to modern retail networks and their expansion which has reached the corners of villages.

"When I was in Commission V, I said, for minimarkets such as Indomaret, Alfamart, please go. I never proposed to close it. What I asked to be closed was a new permit. Don't let these minimarkets go to villages, and shut down people's businesses in villages," said Mendes Yandri when giving a speech at the Red-White Kopdes Collaboration agenda with the Family Hope Program in Ranjeng Village, Ciruas District, Serang Regency, Banten, Tuesday, quoted by ANTARA from a written statement, Tuesday, February 24.

Mendes Yandri also conveyed that in terms of rural economic equity, in line with President Prabowo's 6th Astacita, various stakeholders have a strong commitment regarding building Indonesia from the bottom up. One of them is through the existence of the Kopdes Merah Putih program because the Kopdes profit is at least 20 percent of the Village Original Income (PAD) and the Residual Business Income (SHU) which will later be managed and utilized for the people in the village.

According to Mendes Yandri, villages and sub-districts have an important and strategic role because they are at the forefront of development and face the community directly.

"Now, in order to equalize the economy, the Red and White Village Cooperative is a precise and accurate tool to ensure that the equalization is really there," he said.

In line with all of this, he continued, all elements of society and the government must synergize to take advantage of opportunities for the strength of the economy in the village as well as to prevent urbanization and other negative social impacts.