The Bantul Regency Government, Special Region of Yogyakarta, is strengthening the people’s jamu industry to improve public health and the economy of the creative industry actors. “Today we are in Kiringan, Canden, which is the center of the people’s jamu industry that has been developing since hundred years ago so that we have determined the strengthening of jamu as herbal medicine in Bantul as one of the regional innovations,” said Regent of Bantul Abdul Halim Muslih during a visit to the Jamu Industry Center in Kiringan, Canden, Bantul, Wednesday (12/10/2022). He said the regional innovation in the jamu industry developed by Bantul Health Service was called Seroja (Strong Economic Health, Karo Jamu) which managed to enter the 45 Top National Public Institutional Resilience in the Pandemic Period and Anticipation in the Post-Covid-19 period. “Therefore, we all hope that the development of jamu in Bantul Regency is not only for the sake of improving health, but also increasing the economy,” he said.
He added that Bantul Regency is one of the most creative districts in Indonesia. In 2017, the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) awarded Bantul as Indonesia's most vital creative district or city. “As a creative city in Indonesia, Bantul is only capitalized on creativity, because almost all the raw materials needed for the creative industry in Bantul are imported from outside the region,” he said. He gave an example, Bantul has a jamu industry in Kiringan, which requires raw materials for turmeric, tamarind, kapulogo, cloves, ginger, temulawak, and so on, but the raw materials are not all from Bantul. Then, he added that Bantul had a woven bamboo industrial center in Munthuk, whose bamboo was not from Bantul, then a leather industry in Manding, raw materials from outside the region, as well as a pottery industry in Kasongan, whose clay was imported from outside the region. “In short, as a creative district that drives the wheels if people’s industry, Bantul does not have the raw materials needed for creative industry turnover activities. But Alhamdulillah, with the creativity of the people of Bantul, the creative industry sector has ranked first in Bantul’s GDP,” he said. He added, after the creative industry sector, then the agricultural sector, and the third is the tourism sector, so that his party believes that to develop the area, one must have is the power of creativity and innovation, not only raw materials. “Thus, we will continue to develop our creative industry sector in the future and we have set it in the leading priority sector in the RPJMD of Bantul Regency, which today we continue to strengthen its ecosystem,” he said.
