30,000 Kopdes Merah Putih Managers to Be Deployed Starting August 2026

Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliansyah has stated that around 30,000 managers for the Kopdes Merah Putih (Red and White Village/Sub-district Cooperatives) will begin to be placed in cooperatives throughout Indonesia starting August 2026, after completing a series of ongoing training programmes. Ferry said the placement will be carried out in stages, in line with the completion of the physical construction of warehouses, retail outlets, and supporting facilities for Kopdes Merah Putih. “God willing, at the beginning of August, they will have finished their training and we will immediately place them in all Kopdes Merah Putih, coinciding with the completion of the construction of warehouses, outlets, and supporting equipment,” Ferry said during a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday (2/7/2026). According to him, the managers will be placed according to their respective regions of origin so that they better understand the characteristics of the area and facilitate cooperative management. Prospective Kopdes Merah Putih managers are currently undergoing state defence training and managerial training for cooperative managers. The programme was previously known as the reserve component (Komcad) training, but the government changed the scheme after an evaluation following the death of five participants during the training. The duration of the state defence training has been cut from one month to two weeks. On the same occasion, Deputy Minister of Cooperatives Farida Farichah said the prospective managers will subsequently attend a cooperative managerial training course designed by the Ministry of Cooperatives. The training will take place from 17 to 31 July 2026. The training includes 12 modules, covering philosophy, regulations, cooperative practices, institutional affairs, cooperative governance, operational management, and the digitalisation of Kopdes Merah Putih. The training will still be held at the education and training centres used for the state defence programme, but the curriculum and teaching staff are under the coordination of the Ministry of Cooperatives. Farida added that at the end of the training, participants will also undergo a competency test to obtain professional certification from the National Professional Certification Agency (BNSP). This step is taken to ensure that Kopdes Merah Putih is managed by professional human resources. According to data from the Kopdes Merah Putih Information System as of 2 July 2026, out of approximately 35,000 verified retail outlet construction sites, around 20,000 units are currently under construction. Meanwhile, approximately 14,000 Kopdes Merah Putih outlets have been fully completed.