JAKARTA, 16 June 2020 – The Covid-19 pandemic is challenging the survival of thousands of small and medium enterprises in tourism that will need creative crowdfunding philanthropic investment to stay afloat financially.
Indonesia’s deputy minister of tourism and creative economy and deputy head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency, Angela Tanoesoedibjo, made the observations during the “ASIAN Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) Conference 2020 hosted online at the weekend.
She called for more financial and entrepreneurial innovations, such as crowdfunding, philanthropic investment, public-private partnerships, saying “social entrepreneurs” can be an effective solution to address challenges of the “new normal” period.
“The government cannot walk alone,” she told the online audience. It needs support from various parties, including the social investment community to encourage the development of the local tourism and creative economy sector and increase the business capacity of MSMEs and stimulate the affected sectors by rebuilding a conducive business ecosystem.”
Calling for more support to save small enterprises, Angela added that as countries enter the “new normal” period, digitalization becomes a very important thing to pay attention to in order to support businesses, especially MSMEs.
“Adaptation in this period is not easy; collaboration and support from various parties, including the government, will be urgently needed.”
Indonesia is intensifying efforts to encourage more investment in tourism and the creative economy sector by implementing a policy that is inclusive of the local community, carries a spirit of gender equality and cultural-natural responsibility.
During the conference, Angela also emphasized, “Investing in the Tourism and Creative Economy sector in Indonesia would accelerate rebuilding and rejuvenation efforts and drive the achievement of SDGs.”
The next AVPN Conference will be held in June 2021 in Bali.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed it would open talks with at least four countries ( China, South Korea, Japan and Australia) to create travel bubbles that relax travel between specific countries.
Talks could take up to two months to secure bilateral agreements that would open up airline corridor routes to Indonesia to kick-start tourism recovery.
