Creative Economy Minister: Cultural Roots Form Foundation of Indonesia's Creative Economy

Jakarta — Indonesia’s Minister of Creative Economy/Head of the Creative Economy Agency (Ekraf), Teuku Riefky Harsya, has emphasised that strong cultural roots play an important role in strengthening the creative economy across major nations, including Indonesia, and are believed to be capable of serving as a foundation for future creative economy development.

“The Indonesian archipelago from west to east has strong cultural roots everywhere. When these cultural roots are strong with their own variations and advantages, that is the upstream source. The downstream effect — the derivative of these cultural roots — occurs when they are touched by innovation, creativity, technology, including digitalisation. That is where the creative economy emerges. The downstream development from this upstream foundation is strong cultural roots,” said the Minister for Creative Economy in a statement confirmed from Jakarta on Saturday.

These remarks were made whilst receiving an audience from the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Indonesia, Higher Education Chapter, Universitas Gadjah Mada (HIPMI PT UGM), which aimed to introduce the creative economy and present plans for the 2026 Entrepreneurs Leadership Conference.

Aswin Hadyan R, Chairman of HIPMI PT UGM, stated his hopes that entrepreneurship among young people, strengthening creative and digital-based SMEs among students and the broader community would advance further.

“As we enter an era of digitalisation and global transformation, the creative economy becomes one of the critical pillars supporting economic growth. So at this 2026 Entrepreneurs Leadership Conference, we want to bring together government, SME actors, academics and the creative ecosystem to address the challenges and opportunities for SMEs amid economic change and digital acceleration,” he explained.

In response to these plans, Teuku Riefky stated that the primary task of the Creative Economy Ministry is to identify local heroes capable of going global from the 17 subsectors currently in existence and is ready to collaborate and participate in activities organised by HIPMI PT UGM.