Indonesia is determined to become the home of world batik following UNESCO’s decision to add the traditional dyeing technique to its Intangible Cultural Heritage, Industry Ministry spokesman Dody Soepardi said here on Sunday.
"As a follow-up to UNESCO’s recognition, we continue to make every effort to develop batik," said Doddy, who is concurrently chairman of Indonesian Batik Foundation’s Board of Supervisors.
He said that in the past two years Indonesia has been actively promoting batik at home and abroad through exhibitions. Doddy added that in a batik exhibition as cultural heritage at the Plaza of Industry Ministry, the turnover reached Rp1.7 billion in four days.
"Besides, we plan to hold World Batik Summit in Jakarta from September 28 - October 2, 2010 that will be attended by around 800 domestic and foreign participants," he said.
Doddy said the World Batik Summit will be themed "Indonesia Global Home Batik" which means anybody in the world can have batik but its home is in Indonesia.
"We are determined to make Indonesia home of world batik," Doddy said, adding that the World Batik Summit would be held at Jakarta Convention Center.
He said the World Batik Summit would be enlivened by seminars, exhibitions, batik fashion shows by Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and China, and visits to production centers and batik museums. "At the end of the summit there will be a declaration that Indonesia is the home of world batik."
He expressed hope that various efforts to promote batik would be able to maintain it as one of Indonesian cultural heritages, to step up national batik quality, increase the income of batik handicraft maker, and expand Indonesian batik market.
Data from Industry Ministry indicated that in 2010 the value of national batik production increased by 13 percent to be Rp732.67 billion or rose from Rp648.94 billion in the previous year. Industry Minister MS Hidayat has even set a target that batik production could reach Rp1 trillion.
(Kompas.com)
Cek berita, artikel, dan konten yang lain di Google News
