The rhetoric is familiar: efficiency, profitability, competitiveness. But beneath the surface of these buzzwords lays a more fundamental question: What kind of wealth are we really talking about?

For too long, wealth in Indonesia has been defined narrowly in material terms: Minerals extracted, land developed, capital accumulated. What remains sidelined is a different kind of wealth – cultural, intellectual and symbolic – that is renewable, deeply rooted in community and far more resilient in the face of global volatility.

It is time we ask: Can Danantara serve as a vehicle for not only industrial growth but also a cultural reawakening?

There is no doubt that Indonesia is rich, not just in coal and palm oil but also in stories, rituals, languages, crafts and living traditions. We are, by most accounts, one of the world’s three most bio-culturally diverse nations. Yet that richness has not translated into strategic investment. Despite the global boom in cultural economies driven by intellectual property, from K-pop, Turkish TV dramas and Japanese manga to Scandinavian design, we continue to treat culture as an accessory to and not a core driver of development.

The numbers are telling. The global cultural and creative economy now generates more than $2.3 trillion annually, contributing over 3 percent to global gross domestic product (GDP) while employing around 30 million people worldwide.

The wellness economy, often rooted in cultural and traditional practices, adds a staggering $6.3 trillion, accounting for over 6 percent of global GDP. Cultural tourism, increasingly in demand, is projected to grow from $7.96 billion in 2025 to over $20 billion by 2032.