Jakarta (ANTARA) - Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno has said that his ministry is committed to developing the Indonesian gaming industry, which is closely related to the development of E-sports.
"Hopefully, we (Indonesia) will not only become a (gaming) market but will also open up business opportunities and employment opportunities," he remarked while inspecting the National Training Center of the Indonesian E-sports Executive Board (PBESI) at Jeep Station Indonesia Resort, Bogor District, West Java, according to a press statement written here on Wednesday.
Centralized training will help prepare E-sports athletes for the 2022 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 12–13, the minister said.
According to Uno, E-sports is one of the pillars of Indonesia's economic revival and is expected to create wide employment and business opportunities.
He said that based on his records, there are 52 million stakeholders who enjoy E-sports around the world and that number has continued to grow.
"In the future, apart from having world-class athletes, we must also have games that are able to compete in the global market," he said.
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As instructed by President Joko Widodo, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has cooperated with the Ministry of Finance to establish a Public Service Agency (BLU), which aims to prepare the creative economy ecosystem, especially the video game sub-sector, he informed.
The agency also aims to prepare Indonesia to welcome the 14th World E-sports Championship in Bali, which will be held in November 2022, he said.
"There is an economic share of US$2 billion in the gaming industry, and 90 percent of that figure goes abroad because these games do not have a basis in Indonesia," he said.
To this end, he expressed the hope that local developers will develop games through training, mentoring, financing, marketing, and strengthening human resources to build a complete E-sports ecosystem.
"This will be prepared through the BLU," he added.
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