Poovenraj Kanagaraj
Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) has reiterated its commitment to support creative sectors under its supervision, especially ones who had been impacted by the Movement Control Order (MCO).
The ministry is currently looking into providing support for the sectors and consultations with industry leaders are underway.
“My ministry is looking at the support available for the immediate and near term. As I have said before, I may not be an immediate expert in this space, but using a basketball analogy – as a point-guard, I need to distribute the ball in play to the right players. That is why having industry consultations such as this is important so I can learn from the industry experts. As an immediate measure, digital creative content companies can consider two ongoing programmes that may provide some relief,” said Minister, Dato’ Saifuddin.
The two programmes under MDEC’s purview, the Digital Content Grant (DCG) and Digital Content Creators Challenge (DC3) aims to support local digital creative content companies in producing and commercialising their ideas and serve as a platform to enable local creatives to develop new contents.
The programmes also offers grants as prizes and aims to accelerate the development and commercialisation of these ideas into world-class digital content.
“The goal now is to quickly address the slowdown experienced by the sector as prior to the Covid-19, both video games and the animation segments enjoyed a healthy growth surge.
“Ultimately, it is to ensure they can continue to sustain their business and quickly recover when MCO restrictions are lifted,” MDEC stated in a media statement.
Vice-President, Digital Creative Content of MDEC, Hasnul Hadi Samsudin also urged both animation and game industries to re-assess the current business models in order to adapt the new normal.
MDEC has also highlighted their plans to initiate and encourage cross-collaborations between non-related industries that will nurture new growth tracks.
“Indeed, there are many upcoming opportunities in the new digital playgrounds, immersive content space and digital distribution platforms,” Hasnul said.
