Quality, Motives And Prices Are Not Enough, Bukitinggi Wants To Learn From Gibran How To Develop Batik

Surakarta Secretary Ahyani while giving an explanation regarding the City of Solo to a working visit group from the Bukittinggi City Government in Solo (ANTARA)

SOLO - The City Government of Bukittinggi, West Sumatra Province plans to follow the example of Solo's success in batik production by asking local craftsmen to learn about the cultural heritage starting next year.

"Our visit here is to explore cooperation in batik production and marketing. This is the initial stage here, how to produce batik so that its products can go national and international," said Bukittinggi Mayor Erman Safar in Solo as reported by Antara, Monday, November 15.

Through this program, Erman Safar wants to make local batik more professional. If necessary, you can get a certification as has been done by the Solo City Government.

"Earlier, the Secretary of State said that here there is a batik certification at Solo Technopark," he said.

Regarding the existence of batik in Bukittinggi itself, he said, it has started to appear but the quality is not as good as Solo. In addition, there are not many batik variants produced.

"In fact, we are still playing at the middle price, nothing has reached tens of millions. Only IDR 1 million," he said.

In addition, batik motifs in Bukittinggi do not yet have a standard and contain philosophy. He said this was different from batik from Solo, which was full of philosophy.

"And there are several motifs that have rules for their use. That's what we want to get in Solo," he said.

Regarding his desire for local batik to study with batik from Solo, he hopes that craftsmen from Bukittinggi can follow directions from Solo.

"Because we started from zero, we will definitely do the exchange (of batik craftsmen) later because we have a budget in 2022 to bring the characters, the knots are then taught to Bukittinggi, then the mayor is evaluated," he said.

Meanwhile, Solo Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka appreciated the working visit.

"Thank you for trusting Solo to be a role model for batik craft. He (the Mayor of Bukittinggi) wants to learn about the batik process in Solo. We have also brought in entrepreneurs and batik artists in Solo for the transfer of knowledge. We can share knowledge, later in Bukittinggi as well there will be a batik village," he said.