Coordinating Minister Zulhas: SOE Participation Is The Key To Success Of The Red And White Kopdes

Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs (Menko Pangan) Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs who is also the Chair of the Red and White Village Cooperatives Task Force (Kopdes) Zulkifli Hasan stated that the participation of SOEs will greatly determine the success of the Red and White Kopdes.

Zulkifli admitted that it had been agreed that SOEs would play an important role in supporting the Red and White Kopdes.

One of them is the support of State-Owned Banks (Himbara) which will provide capital with a ceiling of IDR 3 billion.

In addition, SOEs will also be agents for distributing fertilizers, gas, basic necessities, cooking oil, and sugar through Bulog and ID Food.

PT Pos Indonesia will also be involved as a distributor of social assistance.

"The President's order, this time the cooperative must not be successful, must be successful. Therefore, his birth must first be dressed up to be strong, guided. And it seems that after I learned all its business with our SOEs," said Zulkifli as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, May 19.

"The keywords are that the participation of SOEs in this cooperative will greatly determine whether this Kopdes is successful or not," he continued.

Zulkifli also said that Telkom BUMN would build a cooperative digitization system to prevent the practice of financial management from being transparent, as happened to the Village Unit Cooperative (KUD) in the past.

"If it's like before, the savings and loan cooperative, put it in the box of money, borrowed, when there is still money, borrowed again. So no one keeps it. Because if you look at the money, you will continue to borrow it," he said.

Then, BRI through BRILink will also be involved to facilitate financial transactions at Kopdes.

When asked further by reporters about the details of how Himbara banks will channel loans to cooperatives in the Red and White Kopdes program, both Zulkifli and SOE Minister Erick Thohir chose not to comment.

Danantara's Chief Operating Officer (COO), Dony Oskaria, also refused to provide a response regarding the potential collaboration between the Danantara and the Red and White Kopdes.

The government targets 80 thousand Cooperatives of Red and White Villages to be formed and operational no later than October 28, 2025.

To achieve this target, a series of stages have been set. The special village deliberation process (mus rumor) in all regions is targeted for completion on May 31, 2025.

After that, the legalization process and registration of all cooperatives to the Ministry of Law are expected to be completed on June 30, 2025. The peak of this stage is the official launch of the formation of the Red and White Village Cooperative which is planned to coincide with Cooperative Day on July 12, 2025.