THE EDITOR – Culture has not been used as an economically profitable livelihood in Indonesia, even though it is one of the countries that has a rich culture in the world.
In this report, we talk about the prospective profit of cultural business that is used by countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and others.
Special Staff for History and Cultural Heritage Protection of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Basuki Teguh Yuwono spoke on how to manage culture so that it can generate profit.
“Culture actually has a very broad ecosystem of impacts. Most of the time, the economic impact of culture is only measured purely by its form. Meanwhile, when it is packaged in the perspective of tourism, creative economy, and if it can be packaged in other activities, the ecosystem impact is very broad on the economic aspect. Unfortunately, the indicators used to assess it are still limited to the notion of culture itself,” said Basuki.
In order for culture to become a source of money, Basuki believes that people must look at it from a broad perspective. For example, in art performances, people do not realise the economic activities that revolve during the performance.
According to him, the economic space that arises in an art performance is not limited to the sold food or beverages or money to pay for artists’ services, but also extends to costumes and properties (objects used during performances).
So far, according to him, there is no indicator used to assess the amount of profit that will be obtained from a cultural performance. In addition, most people still think that culture is only for foreigners to enjoy, so performances are only done abroad.
Basuki thinks that the economic turnover of culture in the country is actually no less high. He agrees that foreigners are also eager to come to Indonesia to see the richness of local culture, as is the case in Thailand, South Korea, and Japan.
