"Thank God, as of today, 95 percent of the Red and White Village Cooperatives have been recognized as legal entities," he told the media in Pangkalpinang City, Bangka Belitung Islands Province, on Friday.
Despite this progress, the minister acknowledged ongoing challenges in completing the administrative and legal requirements of such cooperatives, notably in regions on Papua Island.
To address these challenges, Susanto said his ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and the Cooperatives Ministry, had deployed a team to Papua.
"The plan is for the integrated team to stay in Papua for 10 days to accelerate the legalization process of Red and White Village Cooperatives," he noted.
The minister affirmed that the team is expected to help raise the KMP legalization rate to 100 percent before the program is launched by President Prabowo Subianto on July 19 this year.
He underlined that once a cooperative obtains legal status, it becomes eligible to begin business operations.
"Once a cooperative becomes a legal entity, it can receive low-interest and collateral-free loans from state-run banks as capital to support its business activities," he stated.
Earlier, the Ministry of Cooperatives announced that around 80,400 KMPs had been established across 38 provinces as of Monday (June 30), with 92 of them set to be pilot models.
Speaking in Jakarta on Tuesday (July 1), Cooperatives Minister Budi Arie Setiadi highlighted that President Prabowo had targeted all cooperatives to start operations by the end of this year.
"Since the cooperative establishment phase has been completed, we are now moving into the second phase, which focuses on initiating business activities," he remarked.
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Translator: Aprionis, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Primayanti
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