The Pekalongan City Government, Central Java, has asked batik industry players to pay attention to environmental sustainability when producing batik business by using raw materials that are friendly to the environment.
“In addition, we also encourage batik industry players to continue to innovate and collaborate by utilizing technological developments to expand their business marketing,” said Pekalongan City Regional Secretary Nur Priyantomo in Pekalongan, on Wednesday 2 October 2024. According to him, the challenges of batik marketing competition are currently increasing along with the emergence of printed cloth products that are sold cheaper and in various patterns.
However, he emphasized, as the people of Pekalongan City, they still have to “preserve” batik culture as Indonesia's cultural heritage and has been patented by this country. “We have issued a circular letter to all businesses, schools, and agencies in commemoration of National Batik Day 2024 to wear written or printed batik clothes and not printing from October 2 to October 5, 2024 so that people are more familiar with and love their own batik culture,” he said.
Nur Priyantomo said that the city government has patented Pekalongan's batik sarong to obtain geographical indication from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights since April 1, 2023. “With the geographical indication certificate, batik sarong officially belongs to Pekalongan City. So, when talking about batik sarong, it is from Pekalongan City, other cities or countries cannot claim it,” he said.
He said that the commemoration of National Batik Day would help drive the economy of the local community from the batik sector. “We appreciate batik craftsmen and industry players who still exist today amid the uncertain global economy. It is proven that in 2023 the regional economic growth rate reached 5.44 percent or increased compared to Central Java's economic growth of 4.98 percent,” he said.
Therefore, the Pekalongan city government emphasizes the owners of the batik industry to use environmentally friendly materials in an effort to maintain the original Pekalongan batik industry so that it is not displaced by the printing cloth business which has a cheaper price. It is also an effort to maintain batik as an Indonesian national identity that cannot be claimed by other countries.
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