Purbaya Reveals Budget for Paying Village Cooperative Managers
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has spoken about the budget for paying salaries of managers at the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih). He assured that the funds for these salaries will not be taken from a new budget allocation but from the remaining unabsorbed funds of the Kopdes Merah Putih programme.
“We will allocate from several related ministries and agencies,” he said in Jakarta on Monday, 4 May 2026, as quoted from Antara.
Purbaya explained that there was previously an allocation for Kopdes Merah Putih for one year. Since not all cooperatives have been established yet, the remaining funds will temporarily be used to pay the managers’ salaries. “That’s only for the next two years. So, the money is there,” he stated.
The status of Kopdes Merah Putih managers after the two-year contract ends was previously addressed by the Coordinating Minister for Food, who is also the Head of the Task Force for Accelerating the Formation of Kopdes Merah Putih, Zulkifli Hasan.
He revealed that managers who pass the selection will be contracted under a fixed-term employment agreement (PKWT) under the state-owned enterprise PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara for two years.
Under this scheme, the managers in the initial phase will have the status of Agrinas Pangan employees. The government considers this model necessary to support the establishment and initial operations of Kopdes Merah Putih in various regions.
On that occasion, Zulhas also stated that payments during the contract period will be handled by Agrinas Pangan, in line with the managers’ status under the state-owned enterprise. However, he did not disclose in detail the funding sources or the amount of salaries the managers will receive.
The government previously opened 30,000 positions for Kopdes Merah Putih managers. Until the registration closed on 24 April 2026, the number of applicants reached 639,732 people. Kopdes Merah Putih is formed as a centre for new economic growth at the village and sub-district levels, in line with the President’s directives to strengthen the people’s economy from the grassroots.
Through these cooperatives, the government aims to shorten the supply chain, which has been deemed too long, while strengthening the position of farmers and village business actors. Kopdes Merah Putih will also serve as an off-taker or absorber of community production results to keep commodity prices stable. In the future, the cooperatives will act as an extension of the government in distributing social assistance and subsidised goods to ensure they reach the right targets more accurately.