Danantara COO Clarifies Funding for 'Red and White' Village Cooperatives Comes from Government

Jakarta - Head of BP BUMN and concurrently COO of Danantara Indonesia, Dony Oskaria, has emphasised that financing for the Koperasi Desa (Kopdes) Merah Putih programme does not come from Danantara, but from the government. “It needs to be clarified that Danantara’s role in this programme is to assist the government in running the programme, but the money used is not Danantara’s money. The money is government money,” Dony said in a written statement received in Jakarta on Friday. According to Dony, many parties still assume Danantara is the source of financing for the programme. In reality, Danantara’s role is merely to assist the government in implementing the programme, while all funding originates from the government. He cited the construction of various village economic support facilities, such as cold storage in coastal areas, which are often linked to Danantara after President Prabowo Subianto mentioned the institution’s name on several occasions. According to him, mentioning Danantara does not mean the institution is disbursing funds to build the facilities in question. “Many then assumed Danantara provided the funds or purchased the facilities. That is not the case,” he said. Dony explained that Danantara owns a number of companies with capabilities and resources that the government can utilise to run strategic national programmes. However, all work carried out by these companies is still paid for by the government according to applicable mechanisms. Furthermore, he revealed that the main objective of Kopdes Merah Putih is to build a stronger, integrated, and sustainable village economic ecosystem. Through this programme, the government wants to ensure better distribution of fertiliser to farmers, absorption of agricultural products by the market, easier access to financing for the community, and reduced dependence on loan sharks. “With the Kopdes Merah Putih, the distribution of fertiliser to farmers becomes clearer. Then, when farmers produce agricultural products, there are facilities available to transport the harvest to the cooperative,” he said. Dony added that the agricultural products collected by the cooperative will later be absorbed through cooperation with Bulog, so the cooperative can function as an extension of the state in absorbing the community’s produce. “After that, there will be a party that absorbs these products, namely through cooperation with Bulog,” he stated. Besides serving as a centre for distribution and marketing of agricultural products, the cooperative will also carry out savings and loan functions to provide cheaper access to financing for village communities. The government, Dony continued, has prepared a low-interest credit scheme that will be channelled through the village cooperative network involving Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM). “Later, PNM will utilise the village cooperative network to channel credit to village communities at much lower interest rates,” he said. He mentioned that the President has directed that credit interest rates, which previously could reach around 24 percent, be lowered to around 8 percent to make them more affordable for the community. To ensure the programme runs optimally, the government will also provide support in the initial operational phase of the cooperatives, including placing professional managers who have been selected and trained for the first two years. Therefore, Dony stressed that the Kopdes Merah Putih programme will not disrupt the performance or business orientation of Danantara as a commercial entity. “Danantara continues to carry out its primary function as a commercial entity, while government assignments are financed by the state in accordance with applicable regulations,” he said.