Indonesia's Economy Creative Blue Print

Photo by Januar Rianto 

As a part of the creative economy, I found sometimes I am confused of what's really happening in the industry, what's our government plan, how should we act and what will happen in the near future. These questions are sometimes get drifted away and never really got asked to the relevant people.

Today was a different day for I got the honor to moderate a talk show by the Creative Economy Ministry on how we should carry our creative economy. Guest speakers include Ahmad Djuhara, Dien Wong, Calvin Kizana, Bu Cokorda Dewi, Pak Has and Mas Rofiq, names familiar in the creative subsectors in Indonesia.

A couple of problems in creative industry surfaced during the talk. Things such as the lack of qualified human resource which seems unbearable due to the high (and fast) demand in the market and the large number of graduates or productive age workers. That has been a more and more common challenges in the day to day operation of businesses here, because suddenly jobs that were not there before popped up, challenging the readiness of people to act on the opportunity.

When asked if any of the speakers have any retaining system for their workers, Pak Wong confidently said that it's fair for anyone in the creative industry to jump from one boat to another. It's only natural. Of course loyalty is expected out of the many hours of trainings and informal education at work, but it seems like creative people can't be contained under one roof for a long time.

Then, when does the government come in handy? It seems like we can't never put our hope too much or rely solely on helps not just from the government nor associations. Our job now is to act, to supply the creative industry with good works. Government then can come in the position to leverage the creative economy, said Mas Rofiq.

The ministry has prepared a blueprint for the next ten years. How relevant that would be might be a big challenge, but nevertheless as practitioners in the creative industry, it's everyone's task to have a standard, to work at our best and not to complain too much about what others can do for us. Rather, prove that you can do it too.