Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry (Kemenparekraf) and related ministries are formulating a presidential regulation to spur the development of the gaming industry in Indonesia.

"The Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister (Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan) is currently organizing an inter-ministerial meeting (to formulate the regulation)," Iman Santoso, director of applications, games, television, and radio at Kemenparekraf, said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He made the statement while attending an event held under the collaboration of Indonesian game developers Agate and PQube in Jakarta.

He noted that Indonesia is home to 174.1 million gamers, with the total value of the country's gaming industry pegged at Rp25 trillion (US$1.6 billion).

He pointed out that 124 games available on the Steam platform have been made by Indonesian developers, making the country the most significant computer game producer in the Southeast Asian region.

According to Santoso, the government is devising a dedicated regulation with the objective of resolving the challenges hindering the development of the national gaming industry, such as insufficient funds, lack of capable talents, technical problems, and fragmented regulations.

The government is striving to make the presidential regulation an instrument for increasing game production in Indonesia, he highlighted.

He said that through the regulation, the government will help the industry improve human resource quality, expand market reach, develop required infrastructure, and get expanded access to financing schemes.

Each relevant ministry will be tasked with managing specific aspects, for instance, Kemenparekraf will supervise the industry; the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry will seek to improve human resource quality; and the Industry Ministry will look into building infrastructure, and so on, he informed.

"Hopefully, the presidential regulation will be issued in September or October this year," he said.

Santoso also expressed the hope that the regulation will help Indonesia produce more game developers every year and boost local game developers' overall share in the domestic gaming market from less than 1 percent to at least 5 percent.

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Translator: Mecca Y, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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