Jakarta, May 21 -- The government expects the Red and White Village Cooperatives program to help open productive employment opportunities in villages throughout Indonesia, and thereby check the migration of young residents, according to Deputy Cooperatives Minister Ferry Juliantono.

"We are witnessing an alarming situation where young people make up only 40 percent of the rural population," he pointed out in a statement issued here on Wednesday

Juliantono emphasized the urgent need to spur productive activities in villages to curb the unfavorable trend, similar to the one witnessed in Japan, where depopulation has been recorded in many villages due to continued youth migration to urban regions.

With this in mind, he highlighted that th...