“It takes me usually around two months to complete this fabric,” she said, as she pointed to fabric traditionally worn for wedding ceremonies.
“A shawl is quicker to make. It can be completed in about one month.”
Wirma works for Pusako traditional weaving house and is one of many skillful women who create countless pieces of precious fabric from West Sumatra’s Pandai Sikek village in X Koto district in Tanah Datar regency.
The fabric she made is priced for at least Rp 5 million a piece, but the price rises as the motifs become more intricate.
Pandai Sikek woven fabric has gained a solid reputation throughout West Sumatra and today the fabric is sold in boutiques across the country.
But Wirma’s quiet village should become busier soon, with more tourists flocking in for the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) — a tourism cooperation program.
Initiated in 1993, the cooperation consists of eight provinces in southern Thailand, eight Malaysian states and 10 provinces on Sumatra Island in Indonesia.
Southern Thailand and northern Malaysia share a land border, while Malaysia and southern Thailand are separated from Sumatra by the Malacca Strait.
The 10 provinces in Indonesia include Aceh, Bangka-Belitung, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, North Sumatra, Riau, Riau Islands, South Sumatra and West Sumatra.
The IMT-GT sub-region is a classic growth triangle characterized by many economic similarities, geographical proximity and close historical, cultural and linguistic ties.
The region also has a vast potential for development, given the large amount of land, abundant workforce, rich natural resources and a sizable internal market of nearly 70 million people.
The program’s 2007-2011 road map should see the region become a special economic cooperation area.
Organizers said efforts will be taken in the next five years to reduce business costs, facilitate the start-up and operation of business ventures, increase the area’s competitiveness as a production base and promote it as a tourist and investment destination.
Secretary General of the State Ministry of Culture and Tourism Sapta Nirwandar said during the two-day IMT-GT tourism meeting in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, which was attended by more than 60 tourism officials and operators from the three countries, that their plans were moving forward.
The cooperation would include construction of a port facility for ferry services connecting Kantang in Thailand, Belawan in Indonesia and Penang in Malaysia.
There is also a plan to build airports to connect tourist destinations in Banda Aceh, Medan, Nias Island and Padang in Indonesia with Langkawi, Ipoh, Kota Byahru, Penang and Alor Setar in Malaysia, as well as Thailand’s Hat Yai, Narathiwat, Pattani, Trang and Nakhon Si Tmamarat.
“We would like to urge all of the member governments to work together as a team to put the programs into action,” Sapta said.
“We should also encourage more active participation from the private sector in our sub-regional cooperation.”
The triangle’s cooperation has already seen an increase in flights to the area.
In 1993 there were twice-weekly flights between Penang in Malaysia and Medan in North Sumatra.
Today, the program has helped increase services to include six airlines flying several flights a week, not just between Penang and Medan, but to other IMT-GT airports including Pekanbaru in RiauPalembang in South Sumatra. and
Another improvement for the area and its people includes the government’s abolition of the exit tax for Indonesian’s leaving parts of the IMT-GT for Malaysian and Thailand.
The policy has resulted in medical tourism from Sumatra into Malaysia, especially in Penang, which receives almost 200,000 such visitors from Indonesian annually.
A series of festivals and other events has also been prepared in the three countries to greet the IMT-GT Year 2008.
“We expect tourism for IMT-GT to increase by 30 percent in 2008
and 10 percent every year afterward,” Sapta said.
At the Bukittinggi meeting, it was also agreed members would support joint marketing programs linking the three countries via a website. The site would also provide easy access for people searching for tourist destinations.
The cooperation agreed to prepare a three-star hotel directory and promote home stay networking to open up the region’s beautiful but hidden tourist attractions, just like the Pandai Sikek village.
Head of Thailand’s delegation for the meeting, Sasithara Pichaichannarong, who is Deputy Permanent Secretary of Tourism and Sports Ministry, said she was mesmerized by the charm of Bukittinggi, which is famed for its landmark Jam Gadang clock tower and Sianok canyon.
“I’ve been around so much and it’s my first time to Bukittinggi,” Sasithara said.
“I had no idea it was so beautiful.”
Photo : wiryanto.wordpress.com
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