Prabowo Announces Plans to Inaugurate 1,000 Merah Putih Cooperatives Next Month

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - President Prabowo Subianto has revealed that the government will inaugurate 1,000 Merah Putih cooperatives in the next two or three weeks. This was stated by the President during the Groundbreaking of 13 Phase II Downstreaming Projects in Cilacap, Central Java.

According to Prabowo, he will also inaugurate 25,000 Merah Putih cooperatives in the two or three weeks following that.

“Very soon we will inaugurate 1,000 Merah Putih Cooperatives, possibly in 2-3 weeks, and then in 2-3 months we will inaugurate 25,000 cooperatives,” said Prabowo.

He emphasised that the cooperatives are not just on paper. He assured that the physical cooperatives will have warehouses, cold storage, retail outlets, many vehicles, and drying equipment.

Prabowo further stressed that there is no precedent in world history for a country to build 25,000-30,000 cooperatives in one year.

“Try looking through history, in world history, is there any instance where 25,000 or 30,000 cooperatives could be built and completed in 1 year,” he said.

The Ministry of Cooperatives previously announced that the government targets completing 29,000 Merah Putih Village/Urban Village Cooperative (Kopdeskel) outlets by April-May 2026. Cooperatives Minister Ferry Juliantono stated that 1,000 units of Merah Putih Kopdeskel are currently completed.

“The ones that are now completed are 1,000 units, the ones under construction but with percentages at only 20% on average, the total number is already nearly 29,000,” said Ferry at his office in South Jakarta on Wednesday (18/2/2026).

Ferry is optimistic that the construction of the 29,000 cooperatives will be completed on time. Referring to the current average progress of 20%, he projects that all physical buildings will be finished by April.