Minister of Trade Discusses Regulation of Modern Retail Expansion with Villages and Disadvantaged Regions Minister

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Minister of Trade, Budi Santoso, plans to meet with the Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions Development and Transmigration, Yandri Susanto, to discuss a proposal to regulate the expansion of modern retail stores after village cooperatives are established.

“I plan to meet with Mr. Mendes. I’m not yet sure what his intentions are,” Budi said after inspecting local MSME products at the KAI Services business network in Jakarta, on Tuesday.

Budi emphasised that the proposal needs to be discussed further to ensure the purpose and objectives of halting the expansion of retail chains are clear.

Regulations for Modern Retail Already Exist, Coverage Still Limited in Urban Areas The Director General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Iqbal Shoffan Shofwan, explained that regulations for modern retail have already been established in: Law Number 7 of 2014 concerning Trade; Government Regulation Number 29 of 2021. The issuance of business licenses for modern retail is carried out through the Online Single Submission (OSS) system with validation from local governments.

Iqbal added that currently, most modern retail stores, such as Alfamart and Indomaret, are only located in urban areas and have not yet expanded to remote areas. Meanwhile, the reach of village cooperatives is wider, extending to remote areas.

“These networked modern retail stores are still located in urban areas. The reason is that when they establish a store, they always calculate the demographics and the income of the residents. So, until now, we rarely find networked modern retail stores in villages,” said Iqbal.