Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Bima Arya Becomes Keynote Speaker at Bandung Asia Afrika City Network Symposium
BANDUNG-JAYA NEWS.COM – Deputy Minister of Home Affairs (Wamendagri) Bima Arya Sugiarto emphasized that city branding is an important identity attached to a city. Branding is not just a slogan or tagline, but also reflects the image, narrative, and aspirations that make the city known and remembered by the public.
“Branding is our identity, how we are recognized and recognized,” he said when he was a keynote speaker at the Bandung Asia Afrika City Network Symposium which took place in the West Hall of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung City, West Java, Monday (5/19/2025).
Bima explained that branding makes it easier for the public to associate the character of a city. He gave the example of Bandung as a city that has strong branding thanks to its position as a creative city. According to him, this achievement is the result of hard work and the great resources that this city has.
“It is difficult to match the branding of Bandung as a creative city, very difficult,” he added.
Furthermore, he said that city branding cannot be separated from the narrative and local history that accompanies it. He mentioned examples of several story-based identities such as the city of heroes, the city of students, the city of gardens, and the history of the Sundanese Kingdom of Pajajaran.
In addition to narratives, important aspects of city branding also include long-term ideals regarding the direction of city governance. In this case, Bima highlighted a country like Singapore that has succeeded in integrating branding with its policies and city planning as a whole.
“Singapore is a perfect example of how branding is integrated into all activities,” he said.
Furthermore, Bima stated that Indonesia has great potential to become a haven for city identity, because of the many cities with unique characters and symbolic strengths. One of them is the city of Blitar, which has high historical value as the hometown and burial place of President Soekarno.
According to him, Soekarno is not just a physical figure, but also holds a wealth of values, ideologies, narratives, and strong characters—so that it is very worthy of being the basis for building city branding. However, this potential has not been fully utilized by the local government.
“But it has not been fully drawn into city branding there,” he concluded.
Finally, Bima invited all stakeholders to make city branding an integral part of city development. Because, in the midst of global competition, cities are not enough to just grow physically, but must also have a strong identity, a clear narrative, and a vision that can attract the world’s attention.
For information, the symposium was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Creative Economy (Wamenekraf) Irene Umar, the Mayor of Bandung Muhammad Farhan, the Deputy Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs of ITB Irwan Meilano, and representatives of other institutions and networking cities.
Puspen Kemendagri
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