Main Characters For Creative Economy Actors: Never Give Up Easily

The people of Ulee Lheue with the Acting Mayor of Banda Aceh Bakri Siddiq watching Menparekraf Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno said that one of the important things that must be owned by creative economy players, especially MSMEs, is an unyielding spirit. The spirit rises from failure and continues to motivate itself to innovate in order to present quality and competitive products.

Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno while attending the "Apresiasi Kreasi Indonesia (AKI) 2022" event at the Bustannussalatin Park, Banda Aceh, said that this unyielding spirit was shown by two AKI Banda Aceh participants who managed to rise because of their unyielding spirit and high business spirit.

"I am very inspired today where we find a new spirit, a new optimism for our revival. That the important thing that creative economic actors must have is an unyielding spirit," said Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno in his statement, Saturday, August 6.

The story of never giving up was first conveyed by two creative economy actors in the application sub-sector, Muammar Kadafi and Firmansyah Asnawi. Both are founders and co-founders of Amanahcorp & Bisatopup. It took a long struggle and failure after failure to be able to bring their business to the point it is today.

Moreover, both of them were previously employees of multinational companies with quite promising careers. Even Firmansyah also had to face the deep reality of losing his mother and sister during the 2004 tsunami.

"It's quite hard, but one day my mind was opened that my parents really don't need my sadness. But how can I as a child get up, pray, and then be able to provide broad benefits for many people with the efforts we build," said Firmansyah.

The same thing was conveyed by Saiful Anwar, an AKI participant who presented the Bang Unoe Honey product. He previously had to fall repeatedly when building a business. Starting from being a victim of investment fraud, being tricked by colleagues to losing hundreds of millions of rupiah. In the midst of his efforts to recover, Saiful also has to face the fact that he suffers from a thyroid gland disease.

Menparekraf Sandiaga also praised the unyielding spirit of the two and hoped that their stories could inspire other creative economy actors. Both in Banda Aceh and all regions in the country.

"Learn from this tsunami story, how can we revive our economy post-pandemic. If you look at it, we all over the world are facing a tsunami with a pandemic, many have lost their jobs, many have lost their families, many have lost their income. But thank God the stories from Bang Unoe, Bang Firman, and Kadafi and the 27 AKI participants inspire us. Never be afraid to fail, failure is the ladder to success," said Sandiaga.

The Indonesian Creative Appreciation Exhibition (AKI) 2022 Banda Aceh is expected to be a maximum promotion platform for selected products and works, so that income will increase and creative MSMEs will be promoted. Participants can build networks and databases, publish products or works, and expand market share.

The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy advised creative economy actors to continue to improve innovation, adaptation, and collaboration.

"I want to say thank you because I see Banda Aceh and SMEs as the locomotive of our revival and I believe the target of creating 1.1 million jobs this year and 2024 4.4 million we can achieve with our hard work with our togetherness," said Sandiaga.