Jakarta (ANTARA News) - As many as 100 major cooperatives in Indonesia have been documented in a book entitled "100 Major Cooperatives of Indonesia 2017" and was launched by Cooperatives Minister here on Monday.

The Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (UKM) Minister Anak Agung Gede Ngurah (AAGN) Puspayoga launched the book which was written by Irsyad Muchtar.

On the book launch event, Deputy for Institutional Affairs of the Cooperatives Ministry, Meliadi Sembiring said the publication of the book proved that the cooperative business was capable of venturing into a large-scale business.

"This (business activity) indicates that many cooperatives in Indonesia are qualified," Sembiring noted.

Even today, the existing cooperatives are able to gain more than seven trillion worth of assets with a business volume of more than Rp5.7 trillion, he stated.

"In the future, we hope cooperatives can be more active in KUR distribution, as the government has provided subsidies for interest and also 70 percent of the guarantee," Sembiring explained.

In the meantime, Irsyad Muchtar, author of 100 Major Cooperatives of Indonesia 2017 said that based on the results of a survey conducted over the past two years, large-scale cooperative businesses continue to grow in various regions in the country.

According to Muchtar, cooperatives are now widely led and developed by young people aged under 25 years.

Muchtar further said, almost all large cooperatives, now familiar with information technology. In fact, many cooperatives build their business networks based on digital and conduct online transactions such as banking.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017