Jakarta, August 21, 2024 – The impact of the creative industry in Indonesia can be felt not only in the economic but also in social aspects, such as the formation of cultural identity, the promotion of inclusiveness, and community involvement. The Indonesian government recognized the significant impact of the creative economy. Thus, this sector has become one of the main focuses of policies towards Indonesia Emas (Golden Indonesia) 2045. This is embodied in the National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN) 2025-2045, which was recently approved as a law by the House of Representatives (DPR RI).
At the international level, Indonesia in 2023 successfully proposed the first substantive United Nations Resolution to specifically discuss the creative economy. Section 78/133, in particular, emphasizes the importance of promoting creative economy for sustainable development. This raises the issue on how to properly collect and measure data related to the impact of creative economy, so that the findings can then be used as a basis to develop the sector in the future.
Exploring this issue further, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) collaborated with British Council and the Asian Creative and Digital Economy Youth Summit (ACE-YS) organized the Timeout! Special Episode “Creative Economy Now: Exploring Creative Industry’s Economic and Social Impact – An introductory session to Ekraf Academy” on Wednesday (21/08). The event, which took place at Dia.Lo.Gue, Kemang, South Jakarta, brought together a number of creative economy experts and practitioners with 80 selected participants of various age, education, and professions. Timeout! Special Episode itself is part of the promotional campaigns for the 2024 World Conference on Creative Economy (WCCE) in Uzbekistan.
This Timeout! was divided into two sessions: Delving Into the Impact of Creative Economy and Get to Know Ekraf Academy and Creative Catalyst. The first discussion featured Wahyu Wijayanto (Director of Industry, Tourism, and Creative Economy at The Ministry of National Development Planning or Bappenas), Ratri Ninditya (Research Coordinator at Koalisi Seni), and Alexander Matius (Program Director of Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival or JAFF) as speakers. Moderated by Head of Marketing and Communications of ACE-YS, Langit Rinesti, the session focused on dissecting directions of future policies and assessment methods as well as indicators supporting the development of Indonesia’s creative economy sector going forward.
“In terms of impact, there are three main indicators: GDP contribution, exports, and employment. These indicators are the main indicators of macroeconomics,” said Wahyu Wijayanto. On this occasion, he also explained that the government, through The Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), has made creative economy one of national priorities in the next 20 years.
Adding to Wahyu’s statement, Ratri Ninditya emphasized the importance of measuring the impact of creative economy; not only profiting commercially, but also improving the welfare of actors and preserving culture. “Creative economy involves creative workers and consumers, so policies must ensure accessibility and support for all parties. The goal is not to focus only on the aspect of development, because not only do we want to be rich, we also want to be cultured,” she said.
Alexander Matius followed Wahyu Wijayanto and Ratri Ninditya’s remarks by sharing his perspective as an creative economy actor and activist. As an important member of one of the major film festivals in Asia, Alexander stated that JAFF and other creative economy festivals spread impact by providing space for the ecosystem and diverse community to interact, while providing opportunities for individual practitioners to shine.
The development of an economically and socially sustainable creative economy ecosystem was highlighted in the second session, especially in terms of building the capacity and skills of creative practitioners. In this session, Martini M. Paham (Deputy of Resources and Institutions Kemenparekraf) introduced Ekraf Academy, a collaborative initiation between Kemenparekraf and the British Council to build capabilities among Indonesian creatives.
“This is our commitment in promoting creative economy as a UN resolution, including the empowerment of talent & human resources in the field. Secondly, we also promote it on a national scale as an offering for creative economy practitioners. Ekraf Academy provides a space to discuss creative thinking, problem solving skills, and to hone soft skills in addition to hard skills,” said Martini M. Paham.
In line with Martini’s statement, Camelia Harahap (Head of Creative Economy East Asia at British Council) stated that the British Council also supports Ekraf Academy by implementing Hybrid Creative Economy Policy Training, an assessment program adopted from the British Council Turkey. “This program runs for 6 weeks, and every week, one online course will be released. This program is immersive, self-taught, and online, and can be accessed both locally and by the government,” Camelia said.
As part of the collective action, Ekraf Academy participants will also be involved in the Creative Catalyst program by ACE-YS, where they will have the opportunity to apply what they learned and contribute to the creative industry. Viandira Athia (Head of Creative Catalyst ACE-YS) explained that the Creative Catalyst program consists of two routes. “The delegates route provides a discussion space for creative practitioners, creative entrepreneurs, community leaders, academicians, and policymakers. Meanwhile, the creators route curates creatives to meet funders, investors, and gain access to the market and other funding sources.”
Wrapping up, the speakers and participants of the Timeout! Special Episode agreed that the impact of creative economy must be measured to determine its significance. This collective responsibility would be the key to the future development of the creative economy in Indonesia.
Providing a space for discussion which supports collective action, Timeout! is a platform for young creatives to take a break and exchange ideas, network, and explore various perspectives with industry experts and practitioners. The discussion, which is a part of the ACE-YS event series, discusses issues in various sectors of the creative economy. In the previous four episodes, Timeout! discussed artificial intelligence (AI), games, intellectual property, and the lack of genre diversity in the local film industry.
Writer : Aubrey Charissa Bhrawardhana
Editor : K. Langit Rinesti
