JAKARTA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's culture and tourism are developing well despite of the world's financial crisis that wrecked many countries, the Jakarta Post quoted a minister as saying on Thursday.

    Minister for Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said that Indonesia's movie and music industry grew significantly compared with the previous year while tourist arrivals was expected to keep growing this year.

    "No less than 90 films are in production this year alone, up from 27 last year, 21 in 2004 and only six in 2001," Wacik told the daily on Wednesday.

    He said that the revival of the domestic film industry has been followed by the re-emergence of local films and festivals, which had died out in recent years. Meanwhile, Indonesia' music industry has grown at the extraordinary rate with a countless number of new songs composed and produced.

    However, he admitted that something that had not been in his priority list was the fight against the rampant practice of cassette and compact disk piracy.

    According the data of Indonesian Society of Singers, Composers and Musical Arrangers, piracy triggered lost of tax income for the country worth 1 trillion rupiah (about 100 million U.S. dollars) while the loss suffered by artist and producers reached 2.5 trillion rupiah (about 250 million U.S. dollars).

    Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourist arrivals is projected to continue increasing to 6.5 million this year, despite of the global financial crisis. By comparison, in 2007, the number was only 5.5 million and 4.9 million in 2006.

    In terms of income, forex earning contributed by the tourism industry was 7.5 billion dollars last year compared  to 5.3 billiondollars in 2007 and 4 billion dollars in 2006.