ASIA CONTENT BUSINESS SUMMIT KICKS OFF IN MALAYSIA FOR THE FIRST TIME

September 22, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: The Communications and Multimedia Ministry of Malaysia and the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) are hosting the 5th Asia Content Business Summit (ACBS) here today.

The summit, held here for the first time, is part of Finas' main highlights at KL Converge! 2016, which runs from now till Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

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Co-organised by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI), the ACBS is established with the objective of raising and developing the Creative Multimedia Content Industries in Asia, and to bring people from related public and private sectors from Asian countries and regions together.

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This year, Malaysia will highlight the new role the government sector has to play in order to sustain the country's conducive environment for the digital economy to take off, besides addressing a diverse range of topics relating to the Creative Multimedia Content Industries; from changing Digital Content and Technology Landscape, Co-Production, Entrepreneur Network, Anti-Piracy Measures, to Funding Services and more.

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"The ACBS provides an important platform for Malaysia to engage with other member countries on many aspects of the digital environment that is now synonymous with the growth of content industries as economic sectors.

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By hosting the summit here, the ministry and Finas are hopeful that ACBS members and international participants from 10 countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, will understand more about Malaysia and the state of its creative industry at ground level.

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"Since becoming a member in 2008, Malaysia has benefitted from various collaborative projects and research references under the auspices of ACBS," said Finas director-general Datuk Kamil Othman.

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Fred Y.S. Wang, the chairman of ACBS reiterated: "I hope this meeting will shed new light on how the content business will help boost the Asian economy. Members can collaborate more to create more job opportunities for our young people and thus further boosting our economies through the content industry."

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Both said this before the announcement of an exclusive business deal of an international co-production of a 10-episode documentary titled "Borneo", a project between Malaysian production house Kyanite TV and Singaporean multi-award winning company Beach House Pictures at the opening ceremony of the summit earlier today.

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Since Malaysia's participation in ACBS in 2008, it has seen a growth in the audio-visual content industry at 12.8 percent and recorded 11.7 percent in the content industry, which includes games and music, as reported by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) in 2012.