PERAN DAN PROSPEK PERKEMBANGAN KOPERASI TERHADAP PEREKONOMIAN MASYARAKAT DI KOTA GORONTALO

Cooperatives was born as a tool to improve the defects and weakness of community economy, and tries to deal with problem of community members necessities in a collaborative way, based upon the principles of equity. The existence of cooperative in a region has a distribution pattern that follows the regional characteristics, which is associated with the location and regional layout plan, and comprehensively affects the development level of cooperative and community economy. This research uses survey method, with the objective to identify the distribution pattern characteristics of cooperatives in Gorontalo City, study the development level of cooperatives in Gorontalo City, study the factors affecting the cooperative development in Gorontalo City, study the development prospect of cooperative development towards community economy in Gorontalo City. The existence of cooperative in Gorontalo City shows an uneven distribution on each subdistricts. The cooperative distribution pattern in Gorontalo City needs a special attention from the government, so that it can be evenly distributed. The role and prospect of cooperative development in Gorontalo City is very important for community economy, this is shown by the existence of government program to develop community economy, such as human resource improvement, encourage condusive situation, direct help, and loans. In the context of regional development, the government program should be done transparently, competitive, and community-oriented, enabling the cooperative members to achieve welfare. Cooperatives in Gorontalo City are the hope for community members to improve welfare. The total amount of cooperatives in Gorontalo City is 231 units, which consists of 57 advanced cooperatives, 38 developed cooperatives, and 136 stagnant cooperatives. This research is expected to be used as additional useful information for the government, concerning the community economy in Gorontalo City as the framework in developing cooperatives and improving cooperative infrastructures through the improvement of caretaker, member, and community role as the implication of cooperative advancement