KUCHING: Sarawak aims to organise its own prestigious film festival much like the Cannes Film Festival in France and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Tourism Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said he was confident that the state would be able to organise such major event after it had successfully organised Asean Film Festival last year, which was attended by many renowned world class artistes.
“God willing, we are confident that we will have our own award in the film industry because we have organised it before.
“The artistes, such as Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, did their corporate social responsibility (CSR). She adopted our turtles in Pulau Talang-Talang as part of the green effort,” he said in a press conference yesterday.
Apart from the film award festival, Abang Johari said last year alone, a total of 248 conferences were held in the state, which raked in an estimated expenditure of about RM42 million from the delegates.
Besides that, he said the state had also won 57 convention bids of predominantly international conferences, which are scheduled to be held from early 2014 to 2019.
“We are targeting to win 50 convention bids but we hope to win 60. We are targeting conventions that will provide much better yield than just economics. We are looking for yield that can provide greater education, research, foreign exchange, much better trade and CSR.
“The state government is committed to promote Sarawak as a MICE destination. The trend (of conferences being held in Sarawak) is upward and we have been very competitive. For subsidiary conferences, we are among the top in this region.”
Abang Johari said the state was proud that Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) had been chosen to be the host of International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) in 2016, after beating a venue in Prague in Czech Republic.
“So the participants will come over to Kuching and will see for themselves the infrastructures we have in Kuching. BCCK is quite a unique convention centre. It looks like many like to use BCCK as part of our effort to attract the convention market.”
Apart from the conferences, he said the state government also sees the importance of making conference delegates stay longer in the state to tour its various interesting destinations.