The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) will continue to support local companies that have excelled in producing animated films of a global standard.
The MDEC’s CEO stated that continued support was not only to enable local companies to emerge as global champions but also to advance the animation industry which contributes to the country’s digital economy.
The government, through its 2020 Budget, had allocated RM20 million to MDEC to help nurture local talents who can produce world-class digital works.
Meanwhile, MDEC, together with the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, is working to make the Digital Content Ecosystem (DICE) policy a reality — the policy is aimed at making Malaysia the hub of the digital content industry in the region.
This move is aimed at providing a platform for local talents to hone their creativity and expedite the commercialisation of digital content that was of global quality.
Supporting Local Media Companies
In December 2019, OpenGov Asia reported that the technology sector, particularly e-commerce, eGames and animation industries, saw impressive improvements in earnings and market access in 2019.
This was bolstered by ample support from the government and established players amid an expanding digital culture.
Lead government agencies, associations, as well as private entities, have worked hand-in-hand since the start of the decade, and it was no different in 2019, to chart the path ahead and lay the foundations for the years to come.
PIKOM, the National ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Association of Malaysia which has rebranded itself as the National Tech Association of Malaysia, predicts that the Malaysian economy will turn around by mid-2020 as the government’s newly introduced initiatives and programmes begin to bear fruit.
The Chairman of PIKOM stated that the government is also directing its attention to the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) via its ICT framework – the Industry 4.0 policy Industry4WRD, robotics, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) as enablers of the country’s future economy.
Over 2019, Malaysia’s animation industry became a sector to watch, taking a significant chunk of the Malaysian box office receipts among local movies.
MDEC’s South East Asia Animation Report 2018 stated that the region’s animation industry was forecast to be US$404.8 billion in 2023.
Based on the study by MDEC, the country’s creative content industry, which includes film and game developers, generated RM7.4 billion in 2017, while in 2018, the animation export product value alone totalled RM146 million.
The industry has also created thousands of job opportunities. The report stated that there were 100 animation companies in Malaysia while the whole national creative digital group totalled 350 companies. The country’s creative content works have been exported to 120 nations.
Malaysia is being urged to not ignore the global animation market as the country could truly and collectively be a force to be reckoned within the realm of creative content technology.
With the increasing number of outsourcing projects awarded to the region, coupled with a few notable, original local intellectual properties, Southeast Asia’s creative industry looks promising and could definitely be a strong contributor to the member countries’ respective economy.
All in all, be it ICT, e-commerce, eGames or animation, the years ahead appear to see the Malaysian tech landscape becoming better, with fortified support from all quarters, including the lead government agencies, related associations and the general public.