T

he government says it expects to see the contribution of the country'€™s creative economy to the nation'€™s gross domestic product (GDP) increase from its current 7 percent level to 7.5 percent by 2019.

The figure is cited in the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry'€™s draft 2015-2019 National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) on the creative economy.

'€œWithin the next mid-term development plan, we are targeting the creative economy'€™s contribution to GDP will increase to 7.5 percent,'€ said the ministry'€™s secretary-general, Ukus Kuswara.

'€œOn top of that, its contribution to the nation'€™s total workforce is expected to reach 11 percent and the increase in the foreign exchange contribution will be 8 percent,'€ he said in a press conference.

The creative economy'€™s contribution to GDP reached 7 percent last year, while that of foreign exchange reached Rp 119 trillion (US$10 billion) or 5.72 percent from total exports.

Ministry data shows that the number of employees in the creative economy reached 11.8 million in 2013, or 10 percent of the country'€™s total workforce. That figure was a slight increase from the 11.7 million a year earlier.

In order to meet the target, Ukus said, the ministry had to address seven strategic issues in order to further develop the creative economy.

The seven issues comprise the availability of creative human resources; the availability of natural resources; the capacity to generate highly competitive and diverse creative industries; the availability of financing that can easily be accessed; the ability to expand the market for creative work; the availability of infrastructure and technology and the provision of institutional support for the creative economy.

He said the ministry would be initiating cooperation with several ministries, including the Education and Culture Ministry, to provide formal education to support the industry'€™s development.

Ukus also said that domestic creative entrepreneurs faced tough competition from overseas counterparts, added to which local entrepreneurs were not yet managing their businesses professionally; nor had they the ability to mass produce their creations.

'€œWe will also be drafting a regulation that will protect intellectual property rights to further encourage creative entrepreneurs,'€ he added.

Separately, senior adviser to the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry, Pariaman Sinaga, said the number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country'€™s creative industry totaled 54.6 million in 2013, accounting for 9.6 percent of the country'€™s total number of companies at the time.

'€œSo, it'€™s time to encourage them to further develop their businesses, given their dominance among business players in Indonesia,'€ he said.

In the RPJMN 2015-2019 draft, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is also aiming for further growth in tourism in the next five years, with a target to attract 12.7 million foreign visitors by 2019, a 25 percent increase from the estimated 9.5 million inbound tourists this year.

In the past five years, the number of foreign tourists had increased 35 percent from 7 million in 2010 to the expected 9.5 million in 2014, according to ministry data.