Indonesia's Creative Economy 3rd Largest in GDP Terms: Sandiaga Uno

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s creative economy industry has been ranked the third largest in the world in terms of its contribution to the national gross domestic product (GDP), Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, said.

"So, we must be proud that Indonesia is ranked third in terms of creative economy (industry's) contribution to the GDP," he said during a webinar at the conference of 500k new exporters, originating from Jakarta on Monday.

The United States is currently ranked first with its Hollywood film industry, followed by South Korea with its K-Pop industry, he added.

Fashion has so far remained the creative economy sub-sector with the highest contribution to Indonesia’s GDP of US$9 billion, the minister informed. Meanwhile, the handicrafts industry contributes US$4.9 billion and the culinary industry US$1 billion to the GDP, he added.

The culinary industry's contribution to the GDP is relatively low, Uno observed. As a matter of fact, Indonesia has a variety of national foods, including rendang, the scrumptious meat dish from West Sumatra, crowned the Best Food in CNN's World's 50 Best Foods, he noted.

"In fact, rendang is number one in the world as the most popular food, and so is fried rice. Why don't we increase the export of culinary products? At least, it must be raised five times to catch up with fashion and handicrafts, which are growing significantly," he said.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative economy is running a program to provide incentives to creative economic players in order to help them penetrate export markets, he added.

Read: Travel Corridors to Open to International Tourists: Sandiaga Uno

ANTARA