Jakarta – The government continues to optimize national economic equality by accelerating the development of the Merah Putih Village Cooperative (Kopdes) as a driver of the grassroots economy. Cross-ministerial collaboration is now being strengthened, involving the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, the Ministry of Public Works, and the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration.
The Minister of Cooperatives (Menkop) Ferry Juliantono together with the Minister of Public Works (PU) Dody Hanggodo harmonized steps to accelerate the development of the Red and White Kopdes.
“This follows up on Presidential Instruction (Inpres) 17/2025, which assigns each ministry responsibility for accelerating the physical construction of warehouses, outlets, and facilities for the Merah Putih Village/Sub-district Cooperative. Therefore, we are harmonizing and aligning these efforts,” Ferry said.
Ferry emphasized that the meeting with Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo was intended to expedite the physical construction of warehouses, outlets, and other facilities for the Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih) throughout Indonesia. Presidential Instruction 17/2025 mandates the Ministry of Public Works to be responsible for establishing building standards and technical supervision.
“The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs does not have the capacity for that, so we are involving the Ministry of Public Works,” he said.
Currently, the physical construction of the Merah Putih Village Office is being carried out by PT Agrinas, with supervision from the Ministry of Public Works. This meeting was to finalize the points of the memorandum of understanding between the two ministries.
“In carrying out supervision of this development, we are assisted by the Ministry of Public Works,” he said.
The government is targeting the completion of 80,000 cooperative outlets and warehouses across Indonesia by March 2026.
“Of the 40,000 plots, we’re targeting construction on 20,000 plots in November. Then, we’ll accelerate the construction to between 40,000 and 50,000 by December,” Ferry said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Public Works Dody Hanggodo emphasized that his party will prepare a prototype building design that complies with national standards.
“As usual, the prototype will be based on building quality according to local conditions, such as earthquake resistance, and so on,” said Dody.
In line with this, the Minister of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions, Yandri Susanto, emphasized the importance of development from below as a concrete step towards national economic equality.
“I came here to invite real cooperation with the graduates to build Indonesia from the villages and from the bottom up,” said Minister Yandri when signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration and ITB Ahmad Dahlan at the Sasana Kriya Building, TMII, East Jakarta, Thursday.
This collaboration covers the fields of education, research, and community service in villages and underdeveloped areas.
“National development must start from the village as stated in President Prabowo Subianto’s 6th Astacita, namely building from the village and from the bottom up for economic equality and poverty eradication,” he said.
The government hopes that synergy between ministries in the Red and White Village Cooperatives program, strengthening village human resources, and support from universities can accelerate the realization of economic equality and village independence towards Golden Indonesia 2045.