Indonesia seeks to help grow, rebrand Indonesian cooperatives

Bandung, 9 Dec (ANTARA) - The government is planning to support cooperatives in operating their own manufacturing facilities to penetrate the industry sector and rope in young people, Deputy Minister of Cooperatives Ferry Juliantono stated.

"It is important to rebrand cooperatives by disseminating information on them to those from the younger generation. To that end, we need to help cooperatives, as business entities, own manufacturing facilities to penetrate the industry sector," he said in Bandung, West Java, on Sunday (December 8).

The deputy minister affirmed that such an initiative is expected to avoid the recurrence of the underwhelming absorption of cooperative products in Boyolali, Central Java, where the industry sector did not adequately absorb the milk produced by locals.

"It is time cooperatives operated their own milk processing facilities. Once the Cooperatives Ministry succeeds in bringing cooperatives into the industry sector, I believe we will not require influencers to drive young people to join such business entities," he said.

To provide wider opportunities for cooperatives, he highlighted that the government will also establish a task force to study and evaluate the imports of food products, among others.

"The targeted products will include milk because our import volume has been relatively high. Meanwhile, President Prabowo Subianto is eyeing food self-sufficiency, necessitating Indonesia to slash imports and boost production to meet domestic needs," he pointed out.

He also alluded to the government's plan to increase value-added tax to 12 percent, saying that the Cooperatives Ministry favors putting the plan's execution on hold, considering the current economic conditions.

"We prefer a postponement and suggest identifying other ways to boost the state revenue," he remarked.