Jakarta, May 7 -- President Prabowo Subianto expects the Red and White Village Cooperatives program to serve as a platform to foster closer ties between the central government and rural residents, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Sudaryono, said.

"The President wants the government to eliminate the distance (between itself and villagers)," he added during a review of a conference on advancing the national cooperatives program in Tanjung Rejo village, Kudus district, Central Java, on Tuesday.

According to a statement issued here on Wednesday, Sudaryono emphasized that the Prabowo administration intends to use the village cooperatives as tools to improve villagers' access to staple commodities, health services, medicines, liquefied petrole...