Deputy Minister of Creative Economy Highlights Women's Role in the Creative Industry

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Creative Economy Irene Umar highlighted the importance of women’s role in making significant contributions to shaping the direction and value of the creative economy.

“Everything creative is bound to be beautiful. Women have the eye for spotting beauty, while we also need men to ensure that the beautiful things are functional too—that’s the creative economy,” said Irene in an official statement confirmed in Jakarta on Saturday.

At the Srikandi Vol. 2 event titled “Women Shaping Creative Ecosystem” in Jakarta on Friday (1/5), Irene stated that around 60% of the creative sector is led by women, all of whom play a role in bringing aesthetic perspectives while strengthening cross-role collaborations. Women’s dominance is evident in several subsectors such as fashion, crafts, and culinary.

“Creativity must be able to create added value and contributions to economic growth,” she said.

Deputy Minister for Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Veronica Tan added that the presence of spaces like Srikandi Vol. 2 allows the government, together with creative economy activists and the private sector, to collaborate, especially for women.

“With equal opportunities and spaces like this, we move together. That means collaborating with the Ministry of Creative Economy to ensure those spaces exist for women. The Care Ekonomi programme becomes a roadmap that we must develop to build women’s capacity, to have access or space to work and opportunities. In addition, there is also capacity building for their supporters,” she stated.

The event also featured several speakers, including Co-Founder of Setali Indonesia and Movement Builder in Sustainable Fashion Intan Anggita Pratiwie, Chairman of the Indonesian Floriculture Association Friesia Sutjiati Widjaja, and Founder of Fashion Crafty Jakarta & Creative Education Enabler Megasandra Simanjuntak.