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resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo inaugurated on Monday Triawan Munaf, who is known as an influential figure in the advertising, music and film industries, as the head of the newly established Creative Economy Body.

The body, which is directly under the President'€™s control, will be fully in charge of supporting and overseeing the creative economy, which covers around 16 subsectors, and will serve as a bridge between the subsectors.

Demand for the establishment of such a body increased after Jokowi '€” who has promised to encourage the creative economy '€” eliminated the former tourism and creative economy ministry'€™s function of overseeing the creative industry when he announced his Cabinet line-up last October. The ministry has now become the Tourism Ministry.

Although the body has yet to have a headquarters, Triawan was upbeat he would be able to lead the new agency in boosting the creative industry.

'€œThe tasks are quite plentiful and broad. We are expected to be able to accelerate the creative industry'€™s growth, which will contribute more to foreign exchange income and state revenue,'€ Triawan, who also volunteered in Jokowi'€™s presidential campaign, said after his inauguration ceremony at the State Palace.

Triawan added that his office would soon start to map all the 16 subsectors and identify a subsector that could be '€œa champion [of the creative industry]'€.

The father of pop singer Sherina Munaf said he also aimed to double the output of the creative industry, which has accounted for 7 percent of the country'€™s gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years.

He later revealed that the total budget for his office to carry out such tasks was more than Rp 1 trillion (US$80 million).

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said recently that Rp 1.5 trillion would fund the creative economy sector, which would remain under the ministry until the establishment of the Creative Economy Body.

According to Triawan, there would be six deputies who would oversee education, research and development; funding; infrastructure; marketing; intellectual property rights; and inter-sectoral affairs.

Addie MS, a conductor and music director who attended Triawan'€™s inauguration ceremony, welcomed the establishment of the agency.

'€œ[I'€™m] very happy that [we] finally have the inter-sectoral creative economy body,'€ Addie said. '€œWe can see that creativity worked as a driving force in the world during the agricultural era, industrial [age] and information era; creativity never ends.'€

He hoped that it would not only to boost state income and people'€™s creativity, but might also serve as Indonesia'€™s '€œcultural diplomacy'€ to the world. He later gave an example of the South Korean K-pop industry, which has gained influence among Indonesia'€™s younger generations.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry'€™s (Kadin) vice chairman for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), cooperatives and the creative industry, Budyarto Linggowiyono, said that by establishing a separate body to oversee the creative industry, the government would be able to better manage both tourism and the creative industry.

'€œThe body is expected to be able to encourage our young creative entrepreneurs to further develop their businesses and help them market their products in the country and overseas,'€ Budyarto told The Jakarta Post.