Bekraf Ready to Hold Incentive Assistance for Creative Business Actors

Bekraf said it would continue the Government Incentive Assistance (BIP) program next year as a form of funding assistance from the government to support the development of the creative economy.

BIP is a non-banking capital distribution assistance scheme from the government, sourced from APBN funds. Bekraf estimates that the amount of grant funds to be distributed is still the same as this year's at Rp 6 billion, with a maximum distribution of Rp 200 million per company.

Bekraf cannot confirm whether this assistance will be redistributed in cash or in kind. If it is in the form of goods, then each company must attach a proposal containing what items they need, including AGD businesses (applications and game developers) who can report what software is needed. Later there will be a team of curators from Bekraf who will verify.

"The plan for grant funds for next year will still be continued. But we haven't decided on the form of money or goods. The amount of funds is still IDR 200 million per business with a total budget of IDR 6 billion," explained the Sub-Directorate of Public Funds, Directorate of Non-Banking Access, Deputy of Access to Capital, Bekraf Hanifah, Friday (1/12).

As for the realization of BIP distribution for this year, as many as 34 creative companies are specifically engaged in the culinary and AGD sub-sectors. The details are 19 companies engaged in culinary and 15 AGD companies.

Some of the names of AGD companies that received BIP funds are Ahlijasa, Geevv, Squline, Babyloania, Stylecation, Frame a Trip, Halal Local, Digital Happiness, Ekuator Studio, and others.

Ekraf Investment Readiness Level (IRL) Release

On the same occasion, Bekraf also released a measuring tool to measure innovation readiness for the four leading and priority subsectors or called Investment Readiness Level (IRL). The four sectors are fashion, craft, culinary, and application and game developers (AGD).

This tool serves as a guide for the four sectors to measure readiness as well as anticipate innovation steps, the technology life cycle, as well as market competition. Each sub-sector has a different benchmark from each other, there are levels that are determined starting from numbers 1 to 7. The highest number (7) shows that a business is most ready to accept investment.

Hanifah said that in the preparation of the IRL, Bekraf gathered business actors, academics, and investors to find common ground.

"IRL is like a report card, the highest the number is the more ready to accept investment. The goal is to have IRL to educate both investors and players because the current issue is that many investors do not understand how to invest in creative businesses. We also provide assistance for every business in determine their respective levels, so they are not released just like that," concluded Hanifah.