President Jokowi Launches Event Licensing Services Digitalization
President Joko Widodo inaugurates the Launch of Digitalization of Event Organizing Licensing Services, at The Tribrata Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta, Monday (06/24) morning. (Photo by: Bureau of Press, Media, and Information (BPMI) of the Presidential Secretariat)
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo Monday (06/24) at The Tribrata Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta, inaugurated the Launch of Digitalization of Event Organizing Licensing Services.
In his remarks, the President emphasized the need to simplify the licensing process to support large events in Indonesia.
According to the President, Indonesia’s Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) rose from 32nd place to 22nd place; yet Indonesia is still lagging behind other ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The President added that Indonesia’s tourism objects remain excellent and great potentials can be achieved by bringing in large numbers of foreign tourists through international events such as music concerts, summit meetings and sporting events.
President Jokowi also underlined the need to simplify the licensing process to attract more international events to Indonesia, while citing the example of Taylor Swift’s concert last March which was held for six days in Singapore.
For the record, Singapore was the only ASEAN country to host it and many Indonesians went to Singapore to watch the concert.
The President also emphasized that this phenomenon caused money to flow out of Indonesia to Singapore.
“I’m talking about capital outflow. We lost money because it flowed out of Indonesia to Singapore. We lost money, not only for buying tickets, but also for paying for the hotels, for food, for transportation and so on,” the President said, adding that the situation was also similar to Coldplay’s concert which was held for six days in Singapore, while it was held only one day in Indonesia.
“Why? I asked the event organizer. That’s because our licensing matters are complicated. In fact, I heard that the quality of the sound system used for Coldplay’s concert at the Bung Karno Sports Stadium was better than that in Singapore. This is what we must applaud. Unfortunately, it lasted for only one day. This is the problem we have to address,” he said.
The Head of State also said that the number of events in Indonesia showed great potentials with around 4,000 events held before the pandemic and around 3,700 events currently. However, event organizers often face difficulties in obtaining licenses, he added.
For this reason, the President also underscored the need to simplify the licensing process to support large events in Indonesia and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles so Indonesia can make the most of its economic potentials and attract more international events.
“So once again, I have been pursuing this for a long time. I highly appreciate the utilization of the OSS (Online Single Submission) for organizing events. I will always monitor and check it continuously.”
The President expressed hope that the launch of this digitalization system would not only become a service website but also provide convenience and certainty and cut bureaucracy which has been an obstacle. He also expressed hope that by digitizing the licensing process, all licensing procedures can be carried out more easily and well in advance.
“Once again, I hope that it is not just a service website, but also provides ease of management, certainty well in advance, and cuts our bureaucracy, resulting in lower cost and more openness/transparency,” he concluded. (FID/ABD) (TM/EP)
