Jakarta - The Ministry of Cooperatives said that the Red and White Village Cooperatives can boost the development of superior regional commodities dominated by the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors in 66,002 villages.
"Therefore, there are many local superior commodities that have the potential to be developed by villages through cooperatives such as in the livestock, fisheries, agriculture and tourism sectors which can activate the regional economy," said Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives Ahmad Zabadi at the 2025 East Java Village Economic Strengthening Coordination Meeting with the theme of Village Economic Development Policy Through Village Cooperatives in Surabaya, Sunday.
In the event which was also attended by all Regents and Mayors throughout East Java, Zabadi emphasized that each region or village has local commodities that have been or will be identified as the village's attractions.
According to him, the development and scale of superior commodity businesses in villages will be faster and larger if consolidated through cooperatives.
"Through Kopdes, the government is optimistic that it can build economic nodes starting from the village. This is believed to be able to reduce the level of extreme poverty that occurs in rural areas," he said.
Zabadi added that the Merah Putih Village Cooperative will be the driving force of the village economy by managing grocery outlets or stalls, cheap medicine outlets (village pharmacies), cooperative office outlets, cooperative savings and loan business unit outlets, village clinic outlets, cold storage outlets, and logistics distribution.
Through coordination with local governments, the Ministry of Cooperatives will map cooperatives and village potential, prepare cooperative modules and socialization, then provide institutional assistance.
The Seskemenkop said that there are three model schemes that will be applied in the formation of 70 thousand Red and White Kopdes, namely building new cooperatives for villages, developing existing cooperatives by developing institutions and active cooperative business units that already exist in the village, and revitalizing inactive village cooperatives.