"It is an honor for us to have a meeting with the ambassadors from EU members," Uno stated at the Soesilo Soedarman Hall, Sapta Pesona Building, Jakarta, as per a press statement on Friday.
On the occasion, Uno, along with 19 ambassadors of the EU discussed the development of quality and sustainable tourism based on nature and culture and the reopening of international flights at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport.
Minister Uno also spoke about quarantine for diplomats and international visitors, domestic travel for children under the age of 12 years, the use of the PeduliLindungi application, and transfer of data pertaining to the creative economy.
The minister arranged this discussion regarding the tourism sector as one of the revenue sources for the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Before the pandemic, the tourism sector was ranked second to the oil and gas sector in terms of the GDP revenue. Hence, Uno has set a target for the value of tourism to be increased as a GDP income in 2022.
The pandemic is viewed as having made the tourism sector revamp itself and work towards quality and sustainable tourism as the main focus.
The key priority in the tourism sector currently is no longer quantity but providing a qualified and memorable experience to tourists as well as contribute to the local community.
"The quality of tourism is based on two aspects, with the first being the length of stay and the power of buying local products, which has an impact on local communities," Uno noted.
Meanwhile, in terms of the creative economy, Bulgarian Ambassador Petar Dimitrov Andonov spoke of his party having prepared a program to support the development of the creative economy sector. The program will be implemented for the 2021-2027 period, with a budget of 2.4 billion Euros.
"We want to offer collaboration with Indonesia to increase competitiveness, specifically data transfer in the creative economy," he stated.
In response to this, Minister Uno welcomed the proposed collaboration.
As earlier known, Uno targets to increase the export value of creative economy products to Rp16.83 trillion in 2022, as Indonesia is ranked third in the world for creative economy after the US and South Korea.
Attendees at the meeting comprised Croatian Ambassador Nebojsa Koharovic, Finish Ambassador Jari Sinkari, Italian Ambassador Benedetto Latteri, French Ambassador Olivier Chambard, and German Ambassador Ina Ruth Luise Lepel.
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Translator: M Baqir I A, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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