I think comparing to other ASEAN countries, Indonesia is getting better every year in terms of creating creative economy to our economy. The percentage of our GDP has increase thanks to creative economy that we have right now. Of course, creative economy is something that is only recently new thing in Indonesia we are behind from other countries like Singapore. Singapore has a history that have been building their industry economy to a creative economy over the years. It's no wonder that they're far more thriving in creative industry right now compare to other ASEAN countries.
From the research I've found, Philippines's creative industry has rapidly increase for the past few years. Thanks to software and IT services, animation, game development, etc. They're currently making it number 1 in the ASEAN community. And most of the creative economy that they have relies on freelancer unlike some countries like Indonesia that has government agency. Which makes it harder for the government of Philippines to help them especially during COVID-19. Of course, it's not only just Philippines that has been improving and their creative industry. Singapore has opened up to programs that would help
people in a better environment to developed their creativity. Thailand also has established Thailand Creative District Network to promote creative environment to the public and private sector.
Indonesia also are pushing creative economy through digital platform in a couple of years. Most of the recent development that I've seen are through music. A couple of Indonesian singer/youtuber went viral because of their covers or original songs. We can see from Stephanie Poetri and Rainych Ranbecame. Both of them went viral and are known all over the world thank to the social media platform YouTube. The most notable creative changes are through digital platform or social media. As you can see, we're slowly going forward to developing and maintaining creative industry just like the other countries. I still think that we could do better since we have so much creative people all over Indonesia and we also have a beautiful various culture we can share that would inspire people to notice Indonesia. The problem that I've notice is the lack of support from the government also the people itself. Obviously, there are programs or department in the government like BEKRAF (Badan Ekonomi Kreatif Indonesia) which is a government agency to establish Indonesia's creative economy. But I don't think that it's enough to push Indonesia's creative economy.
Having the mindset that developing creativity is as important as improving education in our country is very important. We have been thought almost all of our life that getting academic score is necessary goal we need to have, for our future. That's why a lot of parents or families don't encourage children to explore and support their creativity when they we young or when they're at school. The government also should push creativity programs for the younger generation in school to be as important as their academic programs.
References
Sirivunnabood, P. (2021, September 3). Supporting the creative economy for sustainable
development in Southeast Asia. Asia Pathways. https://www.asiapathwaysadbi.org/2021/09/supporting-creative-economy-sustainable-development-southeastasia/
Leveraging Indonesia's Creative Economy. (2019, October). WIPO.
https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2019/05/article_0003.html
