Sandiaga Uno, Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, speaking at an MSME and creative economy player event in Denpasar, urged “the government, creative industry players, and residents to collaborate and innovate in the development of the creative economy sector,” by immediately joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) to boost the development of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which will help create more jobs, according to reporting from Antara News.
He made the statement at an event entitled “Wandering Nusantara at Bali Frangipani Palace” in Denpasar and said that if Denpasar can join the UCCN, it will have the opportunity to build cooperation with other regions in sustainable city development.
He expressed hope that Denpasar can follow the two cities that have represented Indonesia in the creative cities network in 2023, namely Surakarta and Depok. Bandung as the City of Design, Ambon as the City of Music, Pekalongan as the City of Art, and Jakarta as the City of Literature have already joined UCCN, report Antara News.
Uno also hoped Denpasar would decide on its mainstay economic sub-sector as soon as possible to support the city as a creative city, adding that creative economy players improve the quality of their products.
He assessed that the recovery of the tourism sector will affect the opening of markets for creative economy players which will keep the people’s economy moving.
Antara News report that Denpasar Regional Secretary Ida Bagus Alit Wiradana said Denpasar City is ready to develop its tourism instruments and “is ready to collaborate and innovate to continuously support the revival of the tourism and creative economy sectors, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.”
He expressed optimism that Denpasar’s historical aspects and heritage areas, as well as its sister city programme with other cities abroad, will become the city’s selling points.
Source: Antara News
Photo by Ankit Saxena on Unsplash
