Prabowo Inaugurates 1,061 Merah Putih Village Cooperatives
President Prabowo Subianto inaugurated 1,061 Merah Putih Village Cooperatives on Saturday, 16 May 2026. The thousands of Merah Putih Village Cooperatives inaugurated by Prabowo are spread across the regions of Central Java and East Java, with the inauguration taking place in Nganjuk, East Java.
Prabowo considers the operationalization of the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives to be an important event. The General Chairman of the Gerindra Party stated that this program is one of the cornerstones of Indonesia’s economy under his administration. “This is a historic milestone,” said Prabowo, as broadcast by the Presidential Secretariat.
According to him, the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives will make villages more economically independent. The former Minister of Defense said that each cooperative unit can absorb the village’s production output while also becoming a distributor to other regions. The cooperative will also distribute subsidized products to the village community.
Prabowo said that the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives also have various tools and facilities that can be used for the benefit of the village. “Physically, the building is there, the warehouse is there, the system is there, the goods are there, the staff are there, the logistical elements are there, there are trucks, there are pickup trucks, there are three-wheeled vehicles,” he said.
The President said that the village cooperatives will also become a center for people’s financial services with access to cheap credit for village communities. He hopes that this can further strengthen economic growth while encouraging village-based industrialization throughout Indonesia.
On the same occasion, Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan said that as of today, 9,294 physical units of village cooperatives have been completed. Meanwhile, in East Java and Central Java, 1,061 cooperatives are ready to operate fully. “In East Java, 530 cooperative units have been built in 7 regencies, while in Central Java there are 531 units in 8 regencies or cities,” said Zulkifli.
In February, Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliantono said that the progress of the construction of the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives that have been completed has reached 1,000 units out of a target of 80,000 units.
Ferry said that as of February 2026, the number of Merah Putih Village Cooperatives under construction reached almost 20,000 units, with an average physical progress of 20 percent.
“Assuming that it is 20 percent now, by May it will be 100 percent complete (20,000 units),” he said at a press conference in Jakarta, Wednesday, February 18, 2026, as reported by Antara.
He emphasized that the construction of the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives requires careful preparation so that the cooperatives built can immediately operate optimally.
Ervana Trikarinaputri contributed to the writing of this article
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