Informal economy notion in creative industry policy: the case of Bandung creative city

The ‘informality’ of a business may be in terms of location, licensing and product registration, which can result in a lack of access to strategies, programmes and incentives for local economic promotion by formal institutions. This study examines policies and strategies that led to creative kampongs’ development and improvement. By conducting policy analysis, the paper studies how and to what extent different policies related to creative industries recognise informality. We focus on programmes and policies implemented by the city to strengthen small creative businesses in the kampongs. The paper found that although creative industries policies in the city do not directly recognise the informal economy, targeting place-specific economies such as urban strategic zones has been perceived by targeted communities to be beneficial. Furthermore, our study also found that the government’s interest in strengthening and empowering informal economies is merely to achieve annual programme targets without elaborating on any long-term support programmes. The study highlights the importance of designing and implementing governance instruments to support coordination and cooperation between government agencies for effective implementation and sustainability of creative industries policies.