Dr. Mari Elka Pangestu

Cultural Diplomacy & Multilateral Trade Negotiations By Dr. Mari Elka Pangestu (Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia; Former Minister of Trade)

I think Cultural Diplomacy plays a large role in overcoming challenges that arise in multilateral trade negotiations. ‘Soft power’ often does help during hard negotiations. When you are learning about each other, whether it’s through cooperation in culture, the arts, collaboration between films, or collaboration between music, that does so much for increasing the understanding between any two countries or group of countries, which I believe often paves the way for a better environment during the more economical/political negotiations.

- The Berlin International Economics Congress 2012; Berlin, Germany, March 2012