The Merah Putih Village Cooperative Creates a Strong Economic Ecosystem in Rural Areas
By: Alexander Royce
In recent months, the Merah Putih Village/Sub-District Cooperative (Kopdes Merah Putih) program has increasingly garnered public attention as a strategic government measure to strengthen the economy at the grassroots level. Amid global dynamics such as inflation, supply chain disruption, and fluctuating commodity prices, this initiative is considered capable of promoting village independence, productivity, and economic resilience. With continuous implementation, the Merah Putih Kopdes has the potential to become a crucial pillar in national economic recovery while maintaining social stability in rural areas.
The government is targeting the establishment and accelerated operation of 80,000 cooperatives at the village and sub-district level through Presidential Instruction Number 9 of 2025. Efforts to digitize village cooperatives are becoming increasingly evident through collaborations with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Telkom, which has launched the Digi Koperasi platform, which integrates cashier systems, accounting, high-speed internet connections, and a national cooperative performance monitoring dashboard. Furthermore, the Kopdesa platform has been developed as an integrated solution to simplify the process of establishing and managing cooperatives digitally. This step opens up significant opportunities for village cooperatives to develop more quickly, efficiently, and interconnectedly within a modern business network.
The Minister of Cooperatives, Ferry Juliantono, emphasized that the Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih) is the government’s primary instrument in strengthening the economic resilience of grassroots communities. In a recent statement, Ferry stated that through the Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih), the role of village-level cooperatives as centers of the people’s economy must be strengthened, including in addressing the urban crisis through synergistic programs, such as food cooperatives and urban-rural economic integration. He also stated that under the President’s direction, he was instructed to work quickly to accelerate the development of the Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih) as a top priority, including discussions on the drafting of a new National Cooperative System Law. Furthermore, Ferry estimates that each Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih) has the potential to employ 20–25 people in its business units. These statements provide a clear direction that the government aims to make Kopdes not merely an ideal, but a real economic ecosystem that reaches the people in villages.
The Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Anindya Bakrie, believes that the digitalization of cooperatives is a crucial foundation for building local economic independence. At the 2025 Kadin National Coordination Meeting, he emphasized that MSMEs and cooperatives are the pillars of the people’s economy, whose capacity needs to be enhanced to advance. He cited the Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih) program as concrete evidence of collaboration between the government and the private sector in strengthening supply chains, expanding MSME markets, and accelerating digital connectivity in villages. According to Anindya, professionally managed cooperatives will be potential partners for large industries, in line with the spirit of Indonesia Incorporated, which emphasizes collaboration for equitable economic growth.
Meanwhile, Henra Saragih, Deputy for Institutional and Digitalization of Cooperatives at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, stated that the digital transformation of village cooperatives is gradually underway. Various platforms, such as membership management and digital bookkeeping, have been implemented in a number of cooperatives. However, challenges remain, particularly related to digital literacy and limited infrastructure in remote areas. Henra emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships in strengthening digital training and financing so that the changes truly benefit village cooperatives on the ground.
The Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes Merah Putih) movement is now showing tangible results on the ground. In several villages in Central Java, digital-based cooperatives have successfully streamlined supply chains, reduced prices for consumers, and increased profits for local farmers. The use of digital logistics systems and data dashboards has made stock management and demand forecasting more accurate, thereby minimizing the risk of oversupply or undersupply. To date, more than 83,000 villages and sub-districts have joined the Red and White Village Cooperatives initiative, with Telkom’s support in providing the network and integrating the national dashboard. At the regional level, several district governments have begun implementing geospatial-based cooperative mapping systems, such as the GARUDA feature in Bantul, to strengthen oversight and policy planning.
