While the stimulus packages have been a welcomed boost, especially for small-and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs), more can be done to sustain and grow the digital creative content economy for a very different future. That was the primary message for YB Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah, Minister of Communications and Multimedia, when he met with various leaders from the animation and video games sectors in a webinar that was recently organised by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
During the industry engagement, which attracted more than 100 participants, Dato’ Saifuddin reiterated how the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) is looking into providing dedicated support for the creative sectors under its supervision. This is specifically for those that have been particularly hard hit by the Movement Control Order (MCO) and the new norm that is social distancing.
“I appreciate the efforts of the digital creative content industry for producing fun and educational public service announcements utilising their Intellectual Property (IP) as their contribution to the nation in fighting this pandemic. It’s troubling to learn that this sector is hit hard by COVID-19. 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,” shared Dato’ Saifuddin at the panel.
The programmes – the Digital Content Grant (DCG) and Digital Content Creators Challenge (DC3) – are under MDEC’s purview. Both programmes have specific functions.
The DCG is designed to support local digital creative content companies in producing and commercialising their ideas. The goal is to create a sustainable digital content ecosystem for job creation and market expansion; boost talent development; and generate Malaysian-owned intellectual properties. As for DC3, it is a platform that enables local creatives to hone their creativity and develop new concepts. This industry-wide contest, which offers grants as prizes, 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. Prior to 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.
The other panellists were Ng Aik Sern, Founder and President, Passion Republic; Nizam Abdul Razak, Founder and Managing Director, Monsta Studios; and Juhaidah Joemin, Managing Director, Giggle Garage. On hand to moderate was Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, Vice President, Digital Creative Content, MDEC.
The discussion highlighted that even if most studios are managing costs for now, many project timelines and attached talent resource planning were revised to ensure suitable bandwidth was in place to deal with the new challenges.
While immediate issues such as re-routing workflows to avoid production pipelines from being significantly impacted turned out to be easier to remedy, more critical was managing team morale, company cash-flow, and sourcing for new business pipelines.
“There is a need for animation and game industries to reassess the current business models, adapt to this new normal, and how we can collectively re-energise the digital creative content ecosystem post MCO. MDEC 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 concluded.
More information on the digital creative content programmes can be found at www.mdec.my.
