IPB Press and National Library of Indonesia Established Synergy in Communities’ Economy Recovery

The National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas RI) held a National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) in Jakarta, (6-7/3). The theme of the National Coordination Meeting was ‘Social Inclusion-Based Library Transformation (TPBIS) for Welfare, Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Smart Solution for the Recovery of the Communities’ Economy.

In his remarks, the Head of National Library of Indonesia, M Syarif Bando emphasized that the mandate of the Constitution is to promote the education for the nation. The essence of the TPBIS program is an effort to reduce poverty of the marginalized communities through the utilization of regional public libraries in Indonesia.

Managing Director of IPB Press, Erick Wahyudyono said, in the efforts to support the TPBIS program, IPB Press would synergize and collaborate by way of delivering ready-to-use aid books to libraries in 96 villages in 32 provinces throughout Indonesia by the end of 2022. IPB Press was the direct eye witness of the enthusiasm of the literacy activists throughout Indonesia when they received book assistance from the National Library of Indonesia.

“After seeing the enthusiasm of the people throughout Indonesia, we created various programs aimed at distributing books published by IPB Press as one of our corporate social responsibilities to communities, institutions, schools and libraries that needed reading materials. This program had been carried out since 2019, namely The Literacy Program for the Nation and would be continued for the following years,” he said.

He added, “Until then, IPB Press had published 3,000 printed books (International Standard Book Numbers/ISBN) and electronic books (E-ISBN).”

On the occasion, IPB Press also promoted the latest published book entitled Nusantaranomics by Prof Didin Damanhuri, Professor of the Faculty of Economics and Management at IPB University. According to Erick, the book with the economic theme was expected to help change people’s mindset and behavior in viewing economic issues in Indonesia through literacy as echoed by the National Library of Indonesia.

Nusantaranomics contains the concept of economic development based on local archipelago specific wealth, inspired by the regions of Padang, Tegal, Madura, Solo to Yogyakarta. The uniqueness of the respective archipelago community in doing entrepreneurship inspired Prof Didin to initiate the concept of The Archipelagical Economy.

“IPB Press believed that cooperation between the government through National Library as a provider of literacy media and publishers as providers of literacy materials could continue to help improve the community’s economy in facing economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. He hoped that the joint force between the National Library of Indonesia and the publisher could enhance synergy and collaboration in fulfilling media and literacy materials throughout Indonesia,” said Erick.

The Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga S Uno, who was also present, said that publishing was one of the sub-sectors of the creative economy in accordance with Law Number 24 of 2019. According to him, literacy was expected to be able to encourage the younger generation to improve their education so that they could optimize all the potentials of the creative cconomy and tourism in Indonesia.

“Gross Domestic Product (PDB) in the creative economy sector had reached 7.4 percent of the total national GDP. While tourism was 3.6 percent. Thus, the combination of the two reached 11 percent with an added value of around IDR 1,300 trillion in the creative economy,” he explained. (*/Rz) (IAAS/SHY)