Indonesia ready to play active role in WIPO culture talks

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2 hours ago

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Culture Minister Fadli Zon said that Indonesia is ready to play an active role in World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) negotiations by sharing national experience in cultural documentation, protection, and intergenerational transmission.

“Indonesia is ready to share concrete evidence and national experience in documentation, safeguarding, preservation, and intergenerational transmission to help resolve various issues in the WIPO negotiating text,” Zon said in a statement received here on Thursday.

The session was the 53rd meeting of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC on GR-TKF), held in Geneva and attended by representatives from 93 countries.

Zon also explained that for Indonesia, discussions on intellectual property cannot be separated from a cultural perspective.

“Traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions are not merely intellectual property. They contain the identity, knowledge, history, and collective memory of communities,” he said.

Therefore, he emphasized, their protection must place communities as the primary owners and guardians of that cultural heritage, while also ensuring that the benefits return to those communities.

The government’s commitment to culture has also been strengthened under President Prabowo Subianto through the establishment of the Culture Ministry as a standalone ministry for the first time since Indonesia’s independence.

The Culture Ministry’s establishment affirms culture’s position as one of the foundations of national development and Indonesia’s diplomacy at the global level.

As of the end of 2025, he said, Indonesia had designated 2,727 items of Indonesian Intangible Cultural Heritage.

These cultural heritage items range from the Saman Dance in Aceh and batik in Java to weaving traditions in various regions, including Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara, Kolintang music in North Sulawesi, and Noken bags in Papua.

Moreover, Indonesia is pushing for the international framework to provide certainty on consent, attribution or recognition of communities of origin, and equitable benefit-sharing.

Indonesia also brought a cultural economy perspective into the WIPO discussions.

According to Zon, economic value generated from culture must pay attention to origin, moral rights, and the interests of communities that have preserved that knowledge from generation to generation.