Cimahi declared film, animation zone

CIMAHI. Research and Technology Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta on Monday inaugurated Cimahi mayoralty in West Java as a film and animation creative industrial zone, declaring it to be the only city in Indonesia equipped with an integrated information and technology creative center.

Gusti said he would continue to support Cimahi as a creative city in the field of IT in an effort to spur the potential of the creative industry in Indonesia.

“We will provide support in the form of policies and funding and then seek out businesspeople and show them that this is a promising business,” said Gusti after launching the creative industrial zone alongside West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan and Cimahi Mayor Itoc Tochija at the Baros IT Center in Cimahi, on Monday.

Gusti added that his ministry would provide Rp 26.3 billion (US$2.89 million) in incentives to develop research in West Java, including for engineering, national innovation system development and technopreneurship.

He explained that West Java and other areas in Java would be given research incentives and industrial orientation, while Bali had received the same incentives for tourism and food research, while Kalimantan was given incentives in the field of renewable energy.

Cimahi Creative Association (CCA) head Rudy Suteja said that around 800 people involved in the IT creative industry, including animation and film, were affiliated with his community.

He said he hoped the government would fully support efforts by the creative industries so that their products would be used by the local television and film industries.

One of Cimahi’s animation products, titled Historia Kelana, has been aired by Global TV.

“We hope everyone can see that products made in the country also have selling power,” Rudy said.

“The film consists of 13 episodes,” Rudy said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Historia Kelana, he said, chronicled the history of the Indonesian archipelago starting from the introduction of Hinduism and Islam, and the colonial era through to independence. Each episode is 24 minutes long.

Rudy said the animated film would likely be aired on TV as it had the support of the Education and Culture Ministry, which had fully funded its production.

He said that he was sad that national TV stations preferred to air foreign-animated films.

He said this was down to an imbalance between production costs, which could reach Rp 70 million, and payment from TV stations. He said local stations would pay only about Rp 15 million for an animated film.

He said that Indonesian animated film producers had made many films that were no less creative than those made abroad.

However, he continued, Indonesian producers have been forced to sell their products overseas on an order basis.

“Singapore, for example, orders our animation products at cheap prices, but later sells them to the US at much higher prices,” he said. (Yuli Tri Suwarni/The Jakarta Post)