Cooperatives Deemed Highly Suitable for Development in Indonesia, Says Minister
Medan (ANTARA) - Cooperatives Minister Ferry Juliantono said cooperatives are implicitly regarded as the business entity most suited to being built and developed in Indonesia.
“This accords with Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, which states that the economy shall be organised as a joint endeavour based on the principle of familial cooperation,” he said in Medan on Wednesday while delivering a public lecture at HKBP Nommensen University Medan.
He said the government under the leadership of President Prabowo Subianto has consistently affirmed its commitment to returning the direction of the national economy to the constitutional economy grounded in Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila.
Under this new order, cooperatives are targeted to become the pillar and principal agency of the people’s economic development. The transformation and shift in the state’s economic ideology have been initiated directly by the President.
“The President wants to set the ideological line of the state’s economy, directly implement the economic transformation, and lay the foundations of the economy in accordance with the constitutional economy and Pancasila,” he said.
Since being appointed Cooperatives Minister, he continued, his ministry has been tasked with ensuring that cooperatives can catch up with private companies and state-owned enterprises, both in terms of assets and in terms of business volume and activity.
“Our cooperatives are far behind. That is why we at the Ministry of Cooperatives are moving quickly,” he said.
Among the steps taken, the first is rebranding the image of cooperatives, as it is recognised that they have become unfamiliar, particularly among the younger generation, especially millennials.
The next step, according to the Minister, is improving governance. This means cooperatives will be developed not only institutionally but also in terms of growing their businesses.
“Thirdly, we are moving quickly on digitalisation. Because the information held by the Ministry of Cooperatives previously was still very static. We are turning that information into dynamic data, so that we can carry out supervisory control and provide guidance and support to the cooperatives that exist,” he said.
The government has previously affirmed that strengthening cooperatives will be carried out in part through the Red-and-White Village/Neighbourhood Cooperatives (KDKMP) programme, which is expected to serve as an instrument for strengthening village economies.
President Prabowo Subianto, at the climax of the 2026 National Cooperatives Day on 12 July, stated that KDKMP are being directed to become village economic centres as well as the main channel for various government subsidies to communities in need.
The President also said that village communities, particularly farmers, still face limited access to financing and are often dependent on loan sharks to meet their needs during the planting season. For that reason, every village is expected to have a cooperative offering savings and loan services at low interest rates.
According to data from the Red-and-White Village/Neighbourhood Cooperatives Acceleration Management Information System (Simpkopdes) as of 14 July 2026, a total of 83,382 cooperatives have been formed, though not all of them have physical buildings.
Of that number, there are 38,054 land proposals for cooperative physical construction, of which 35,867 have been verified, 19,296 cooperatives are still in the construction phase, and 16,091 cooperatives have completed construction by 100 per cent.