ECONOMY – The Culinary Festival event in Jayapura City, Papua is currently an opportunity for every Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to increase their income, not only culinary businesses, handicraft and fashion businesses also feel the impact of each event held by both Government and private.
The Irian Creative Week Festival is one of the calendar events that is held every year by the Jayapura City Tourism Office. This event targets young people, especially students. The event, which is held in conjunction with the Jayapura City Anniversary, involves many MSMEs, especially young people who are just developing as part of the Government’s efforts to encourage them to be more independent. The Baku Timba Festival (Baku Timbah Fest) held by Octow Entertainment is very helpful for the Jayapura City Government both in terms of increasing MSME income and local Regional Original Income (PAD).
The Baku Timba Fest has been held since January 2023 and up to now as many as 500 MSMEs spread across Jayapura Regency and City have been involved with the total turnover during the event reaching IDR 30 billion. Currently there is also a Chinese New Year festival held by the Indonesian Chinese Marga Social Association for Tanah Papua in commemoration of Chinese New Year, this event is planned to be proposed to the National Event Calendar by the Jayapura City Tourism Office in 2025.
Head of the Jayapura City Tourism Office, Matias Mano, admitted that various culinary festivals really help MSMEs, which apart from promoting products, also increase income by up to 75 percent. At the Irian Creative Week event, the MSMEs involved can earn a turnover of IDR 1.4 million per day so that this event becomes one of the agendas that MSMEs in Jayapura City look forward.
This festival was also held in collaboration with the Bank Indonesia Papua Representative Office and combined with the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) week as an effort to introduce young people and the people of Jayapura City to the digital payment ecosystem. To continue to boost the income of MSMEs in Jayapura City, the local Tourism Office has issued a calendar of events that will be held throughout 2024, with more festivals, more residents will visit Jayapura City, both from Keerom Regency and Jayapura Regency.
Head of the Jayapura City Tourism Office, Matias Mano, explained that as many as 50 festivals will be held in 2024 and the Tourism Office summarized the five top events that are worth visiting by the public, one of which is Irian Creative Week, then the Port Numbay Festival which will take place after Idul Fitri 2024 will carry the theme “Village Police Exhibition” which took place in Yoka Village, this activity was specifically aimed at exploring the potential that exists in 14 villages in Jayapura City. The Creative Numbay Festival will be held in September 2024, with the agenda being an opportunity for every creative economy actor in Jayapura City to display their work.
The Creative Numbay Festival is a vehicle for developing creativity so that Papua is more advanced, competitive and able to be on par with other provinces in the country. This event is also an effort to optimize the potential of superior local products and create a creative economic industry ecosystem so that it can contribute to Papua in realizing community economic independence.
