The Dekranas Award ceremonial event will be attracting the attention of all handicraft artisans in Indonesia, where the best 52 craftworks from every part of the country will receive the most prestigious award in the crafts world. These award-winning crafts will have topped a number of 288 craftworks that are competing. The awards are scheduled to be presented on 17th May 2016, on Dekranas’ 36th anniversary in Jakarta.
The Director General of National Export Development for the Ministry of Trade, Nus Nuzulia Ishak, revealed that the award serves as a gateway for the award-winning craftworks to enter the international market and boost non-oil and gas exports.
“The Dekranas Award is an important event to increase non-oil and gas exports,” Nus emphasized (15/4).
As a creative product, crafts succeeded to record the second highest export value among the 16 subsectors in the category. In 2015, the value of this commodity export is recorded at USD 704.22 million, or increased compared to the previous year of USD 694.34 million. In January 2016, the achievement of this product’s export value reached the level of USD 55.55 million with the main export countries of the United States, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The Dekranas Award is an event to support local artisans to step up from competing at the local level to the global market. “Therefore, we will include the winners’ works to compete at the World Craft Council Award (WCC Award) at the Asian Pacific level next October 2016 in Kuwait,” Nus stated.
The Dekranas Award for the Best Craftwork is a national-level award for artisans throughout Indonesia. This event also includes quality crafts with unique designs, based on local wisdom and culture while simultaneously following the dynamics of trend changes and market preference. Through this event, the Trade Ministry also participates in the growth of domestic craft industry, particularly those using raw materials from textile, natural fiber, ceramics, wood, stones, metal, natural original materials, and processed materials.
The craftworks which have been registered to compete at the 2015 Dekranas Award reached 288 works. They are categorized into 8 categories, consisting of textile or cloths (120 crafts), natural fiber (31 works), ceramics (34 works), wood (27 works), stones (19 works), metal (11 works), natural original material such as leather, shells, clams, bones, mammoth ivory, and animal fur/nails (30 works), and processed new materials such as acrylic glass, polyester plastic, resins, and paraffin wax (16 works).
From that amount there are still 141 craftworks, which passed the selection to enter the judging panel in Jakarta on 14-16th December 2015. Based on the evaluation results, as much as 52 craftworks where chosen to receive the Dekranas Award 2015. These craftworks have fulfilled the judgment’s pre-requirements and requirements; the former being eco-friendly (environmentally sustainable) and fairness (fulfill social responsibilities). Furthermore, requirements which become the evaluation points are excellence, authenticity, innovation, and marketability.
2016 Exemplary Mentors Dekranas Award
Apart from the artisans, the Dekranas Award will also be presented to the provincial executive board of Dekranas, or Dekranasda. These awards will be presented for their achievements in mentoring and developing the crafts sector in their area of accreditation.
The national Dekranas collaborated with the Trade Ministry in organizing the 2016 Exemplary Mentors Dekranas Award, where 17 provinces participated, namely West Java, East Java, Central Java, D.I. Yogyakarta, DKI Jakarta, Lampung, Bengkulu, Riau, Jambi, West Sumatra, Nangroe Aceh Darussalam, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, South East Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, and East Kalimantan.
The judging stage of the 2016 Exemplary Mentors Dekranas Award has been held on 11-13th April 2016. The practitioners at the judging panel included Hermawan Kertajaya (Mark Plus Inc.), Kemal Effendi Gani (Majalah Swa), and Robby Kusumaharta (KADIN). The ability in coordination, sensitivity, creativity, commitment, and independence were the criteria of evaluation in this event. The award for winners will also be granted at the Best Craftworks Dekranas Award ceremony.
“We aim to motivate the officials at the provincial boards of Dekranasda, which collaborated with the regency/city Dekranasda in building creative artisans in their area. It is the results of their collaboration which are able to advance regional potential through the creation of value-added and highly competitive products,” said Nus. –end–
For further information please contact:
Ani Mulyati, Head of Public Relations Bureau Ministry of Trade, Phone/Fax: 021-3860371/021-3508711 Email: pusathumas@kemendag.go.id
Sulistyawati, Director of National Export Products Directorate General of National Export Development Ministry of Trade, Phone/Fax: 021- 23528644/021- 23528654 Email: sulistyawati@kemendag.go.id
