Blessed with beautiful nature, a rich history and a diverse culture, Indonesia can make tourism one of the main drivers of the nation's economy. However, the government still has a lot of homework to do to improve the necessary infrastructure and human resources. Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu talked to The Jakarta Post about her plans to develop this sector. Here are excerpts: 

Question: What are your strategies to develop the tourism and creative economy sector? 

Answer: We have the 2009 Tourism Law, and the Master Plan for National Tourism Development [Ripparnas] and 2009 presidential instruction No. 6 for creative economy development. We know that we have to connect both of the blueprints. 

For Ripparnas itself, we have a detailed plan, over 200 pages, on tourism areas we want to improve. We have identified 200 tourist attractions and 80 national tourism strategic locations, or KSPN, which should be developed by 2025. As a short-term plan, we have picked 16 out of 80 locations as pilot projects on how to manage the tourism sector comprehensively and coordinate with other sectors such as the Public Works Ministry, Transportation Ministry and local governments. 

Besides Bali, other locations we included are Lake Toba, Pangandaran, Borobudur, Bromo Tengger, Semeru, Lombok, Rinjani, Flores, Wakatobi, Toraja and Derawan.