Indonesia President Joko Widodo’s cabinet reshuffle has produced six new ministers and five new vice ministers, including a fresh minister of tourism and creative economy/head of Tourism and Creative Economy Board.
Sandiaga Uno, a politician and former vice governor of Jakarta with a prominent business background, has taken over from Wishnutama Kusubandio, who has held the post since October 2019.
Speaking during the hand-over ceremony on December 23, Sandiaga revealed that his first assignment from the president was to have the country’s five super-priority destinations ready for tourism business, in terms of infrastructure, cultural attractions, service readiness and talents, within a year.
His second assignment was to create calendar of events, ranging from small scale to national and mega world-class events.
Meanwhile, Sandiaga shared that Indonesia vice president Ma’ruf Amin had emphasised on the importance of making the creative economic sector the engine of tourism development and job creation. As such, product innovations like halal tourism and village tourism were areas of focus for the vice president.
While Sandiaga acknowledged that tourism recovery would be very challenging amid the pandemic, he expressed commitment to the ministry’s development programmes and to overcoming the crisis.
To achieve his goals, he has developed a strategy of technology innovation and will be focusing on health and safety as priority, and will be collaborating with all related parties.
