Jakarta, July 5 -- Indonesia's Deputy Minister of Cooperatives, Ferry Juliantono, expressed confidence that the establishment of Merah Putih Village Cooperatives will unlock significant opportunities for the insurance industry to expand its reach in rural communities.

Juliantono emphasized that these grassroots cooperatives could serve as distribution hubs for a wide range of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) products, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), subsidized fertilizers, postal and financial services, as well as insurance products.

"There is a real demand for insurance in rural areas, for example, crop insurance," Juliantono noted in his statement to the media, as quoted here on Saturday.

The deputy minister remarked that insura...