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span class="inline inline-right">Itsy bitsy spider: A robot named SR-2010 Hexapod Kit, the creation of fi ve students of theSchool of Electro Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology(ITB), is displayed during the Week of Indonesian Creative ProductsExpo at the Jakarta Convention Center in a file photo. (JP/P.J. Leo)Amid rising speculation that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will make a major cabinet reshuffle this month, a top trade official showed off the impressive progress of his ministry in boosting the country’s creative industries.

In his keynote speech at the opening of Nokia Developer Conference Indonesia ICT Award on Wednesday, Deputy Trade Minister Mahendra Siregar said that in the last nine months, the creative industry sector had accounted for 6 percent of the country’s overall exports.

“Our creative-industry exports are nearing US$10 billion,” Mahendra noted.

The official, who spent most of his career as a diplomat, outlined Indonesia’s creative industry covering 14 sub sectors, including advertising, architecture, art market, craft, design, fashion, video-film-photography, interactive games, music, art performance, printing and publishing, computer and software services.

Trade Minister, Mari Elka Pangestu, who has been in her position since October 2004, also often discussed her ministry’s progress in boosting creative industry.

According to Mahendra, most creative industries had recorded high growth in the last five years. He cited a few examples like computer and software service industries, which grew by 12.5 percent, advertising 12 percent and interactive games 15 percent.  

Mahendra however complained that despite the positive growth, financing remains one of the major obstacles in creative-industry development.

Talking to reporters after the ceremony, the deputy minister said the pattern of the industry is in line with other sectors.

“Our physical exports this year are estimated at $200 billion, which will put Indonesia close to the top 20 in terms of economic capacity, despite facing not-yet-ideal logistics, production-resource distribution and supply chain infrastructure. Imagine where our digital, mobile devices and ICT industries, who do not have such constraints, could be [in the world ranking],” Mahendra added.

He revealed that Indonesia remained in deficit in the digital and mobile products trade, with $6 billion of exports and $11 billion of imports.

“However, do not look at the deficit, but the trade volume. We have become a major center for digital and mobile-devices production, but we are still a market,” he said, adding that hardware and ICT industries grew at an average of 15 — 17 percent in the last five years.

Meanwhile, Nokia Indonesia’s head of services and portfolio Haryati Lawidjaja, said that 2.2 million downloads were made in Nokia application stores every week.

Haryati said that 12,000 Indonesian content developers created thousands of applications, 1,200 of which were already published in Nokia application stores. (rcf)