Government Encourages University-Based Creative Economy Strengthening

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek) together with the Ministry of Creative Economy (Kemenekraf) are encouraging the strengthening of the creative economy based on higher education institutions. Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Brian Yuliarto, emphasised that universities hold a strategic position in fostering the birth of new industries based on science and technology. “We also hope that campuses can encourage the birth of new industries; of course, the most appropriate is the creative industry, which is the closest and most likely to be driven and managed by higher education institutions. We hope for considerable cooperation to create new economic centres through campuses,” he said. The Minister assessed that the creative economy sector is the closest to the university ecosystem, thus having a great opportunity to be developed through inter-ministerial synergy. Minister Brian believes the creative economy can potentially be developed through this scheme with the target of producing startups supported by research and academic programmes, especially at the master’s and doctoral levels. “We are currently going to establish Centres of Excellence. The hope is for around 50 Centres of Excellence in Indonesia, ranging from research, master’s, to doctoral programmes, but very focused on one topic. We think there might be one to three Centres of Excellence related to the creative economy,” he said. Minister Brian also proposed that the Intellectual Property (IP) registration or guidance offices available at various universities be utilised by creative economy actors in the regions. Through this scheme, campuses are expected to become centres for assistance in the drafting, registration, and commercialisation of intellectual property. He also explained four areas of collaboration, namely research development strategy, educational development, intellectual property facilitation, and other supporting programmes including creative economy scholarship quotas, the ECHOES Programme (Mainstreaming the Creative Economy on Campus), and institutional strengthening of the Higher Education Consortium for the Creative Economy.