Depok City Creative Economy Development Strategy During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This article examined the dynamics of the Depok City Government’s strategy to strengthen the creative economy sector in a sustainable manner during the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative research methods were used to explore field data, using the data analysis techniques proposed by Miles, Huberman and Saldana. The location studied was Depok City, a hinterland for the capital Jakarta, and the study took place in July 2020 – February 2021. The results revealed that the Depok City Government responded to the Covid-19 pandemic through collaborative synergies with other related agencies and established a digital network for traditional markets that accommodated the ongoing creative economy sector development program. According to the results, the strategy of sustainable creative economic development focused on crisis management leadership, especially observation, direction, coordination and accuracy of deliberative decision making. Also, the effectiveness of the development strategy was supported by synergies of cooperation between creative economy sector stakeholders. The implications of changing the creative economy development strategy were the development of collaborations and risk sharing as well as the continuity of digital platform management for marketing and developing creative economy businesses in Depok City during the pandemic. Keywords: strategy, creative economy, collaboration, digital platfor