VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) appealed to regional leaders to diversify their region's branding in line with the local potential and avoid monotonous promotional taglines.

Jokowi pointed out that several cities and districts have a similar branding pattern, a single word starting with the Indonesian language prefix "ber-" as an abbreviation of the region's core values.

"Cities and districts must not have the same monotonous branding. We have 'beriman', 'berhiber', and 'berseri' (city brandings) that all start with 'ber-'," the president stated at the 2023 Regional Heads and Regional Leadership Forum National Coordination Meeting in Bogor, West Java, Tuesday.

Jokowi noted that Indonesia's 514 cities and districts in 38 provinces must prudently design their cities by optimizing the local potential and conceiving a forward-looking master plan.

With an appropriate master plan in place, Indonesian cities and districts would have diversified branding according to their local potential.

"Make your city branding according to your potential and where we excel. For instance, make the city branding 'City of Banana', why not? Or 'City of fish', why not? 'City of Music', why not? Or 'City of Furniture', why not? But it must be consistent," Jokowi emphasized.

The president underscored that if a region, for instance, decided to highlight its banana produce, then it should start spotlighting its excellence in banana products.

He cited as an example the city of Davao in the Philippines as a success story in highlighting bananas as their branding point, as the city's banana industry and all aspects of bananas in the city "make people think of bananas when they think of Davao".

"(The regional authority) must plant more bananas in the region, then prepare the industry for the banana harvest. Prepare all aspects to ensure the city branding will be visible," he noted.

He also highlighted the success of High Point city in the US state of North Carolina to develop the largest furniture exhibition and Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota developing its golf courses as the city's backbone that should be emulated by Indonesian regions.

For Indonesian cities, the president suggested that Lampung enhance its "Banana city" or "Pineapple city" branding and Ambon in North Maluku develop its "Fish city" branding by emulating Tokyo's renowned Tsukiji Fish Market. (Antaranews)