Regional Workshop: Toward a socially inclusive creative economy in Southeast Asia and Pacific Island Countries - Resident Coordinator's Speech, Gita Sabharwal

Your Excellency, Irene Umar, Vice Minister Creative Economy

Your Excellency Bapak Tri Tharyat, Director General Kemlu

Mathieu Cognac, UN DESA

Representatives from Ministry of Creative Economy, Ministry of Tourism, ASEAN Secretariat and UN colleagues

I am delighted to address you as we scale up creative economies in Southeast Asia and farther afield in partnerships with governments, private sectors and civil societies. 

Let me extend a warm welcome to participants from Cambodia, Fiji, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, and Timor Leste. 

I would like to invite you to enjoy the best that Jakarta has to offer, including gado-gado, batik and ondel-ondel, all of which reflect the depth of the country’s creative sector.

Your presence here testifies to the ambition of your countries to bring the critical contributions of young people, women, persons with disabilities, and vulnerable groups to the forefront of just, and inclusive transformations.  

Indonesia is showing its leadership by hosting this regional workshop for embedding the creative economy in national development plans.

Last September I had the privilege to join initial workshops in Jakarta and other provinces and now DESA is extending the reach of these dialogues to all of you from 7 countries participating today.

The creative economy is one of the most dynamic sectors globally as it fosters innovation and strengthens cultural identity.

Indonesia is a model for leveraging the many benefits of the creative economy, employing 25 million people and directly contributing to 8% of growth. 

The government has placed it front and centre in the country’s forward-looking agenda in line with the President’s ambitious growth trajectory. 

By tapping into the ingenuity and can-do spirit of women and young people in fine arts, fashion, filmmaking, animation, handicrafts, music, and culinary arts, Indonesia generates economic value and boosts inclusion at the same time.

This shows that cultural preservation, creative expressions and economic growth go hand in hand, greatly benefitting the SDGs as a whole. 

The UN is bringing to bear cutting-edge expertise to scale up and speed up this process. 

We leverage partnerships with over 7,000 MSMEs to create brands and platforms for marketing local produce with a focus on outer islands. 

We also invest in building skills of women entrepreneurs to secure long-term orders from Europe with 300 women weavers in East Flores now exporting quality products. 

Trade missions targeting textiles and handicrafts have connected 20 women entrepreneurs to UK buyers, enabling these women to expand their trade footprints while contributing to secure livelihoods for their communities. 

These practices not only reflect Indonesia’s unique cultural heritage but also meet rising global demand for sustainable products.

All of you from other countries have many similar examples and we very much looking forward to hearing from you on lessons learned. 

This workshop is an ideal platform for sharing these as we accelerate creative economies within the context of South-South Cooperation. 

Let us use this workshop as a springboard for further deepening collaboration, fostering innovation, and scaling up actions for inclusion. 

Today’s dialogue is especially timely ahead of the second world social summit for sustainable development. Indonesia having championed UN resolution on the creative economy can also lead to integrate creative economy as part of the world social summit declaration as a formidable engine for social inclusion and long-term prosperity.

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