Prabowo: In World History, Has Anyone Built 30,000 Cooperatives in a Year?

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto showcased that 25,000 Village Cooperatives (Kopdes) Merah Putih will be inaugurated in two to three months’ time. According to him, this is a world record.

“Try looking it up in history, I ask you to check in history. Look in world history, is there any instance of 25,000 or 30,000 cooperatives being built and completed in one year?” said Prabowo at the groundbreaking ceremony for 13 national downstreaming projects in Cilacap, Central Java, on Wednesday (29/4/2026).

“Soon we will inaugurate 1,000 Merah Putih Cooperatives. Possibly in 2-3 weeks’ time. After that, in 2-3 months, we will inaugurate more than 25,000 cooperatives,” Prabowo stated.

Prabowo emphasised that the cooperatives to be inaugurated are already in physical form, not merely on paper.

He revealed that the Kopdes Merah Putih outlets have warehouses, cold storage, vehicles, and drying machines.

If one Kopdes Merah Putih employs 18 people, then 1.4 million workers will be absorbed.

“Brothers and sisters, we must not become a nation that is low in self-esteem. Inferior, inferior, inferior. Always the foreign nations that are great,” Prabowo added.