KUALA LUMPUR: Attracting talent into the digital content and creative industry will create a workforce that can sustain the need for innovation, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.
He said these talents would contribute to the growth of the economy once they entered the workforce.
“And we believe that this will be for more than just Malaysia, for the greater Asean region,” he said in his remarks at the opening of KL Converge 2014 yesterday.
The three-day multi-platform digital content and creative industry conference and exhibition was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here.
Ahmad Shabery noted that yesterday all roads were leading to the digital highway, and like millions of people around the world, Malaysians had embarked on the digital lifestyle.
“There is now a generation who have no clue what a Walkman is, nor have they ever heard of VHS or Betamax. Yesterday the choice is between Android and IOS, perhaps Windows,” Ahmad Shabery said, adding that the latest mobile phones unveiled on the market were all the craze.
He further said that the journey to KL Converge did not start recently.
“You could say that we’ve been on this journey for a long time. Since we adopted the Communications and Multimedia Act in 1998 to be exact, just under 16 years ago.
“Then, we realised that whether or not we had the law to provide for it, convergence would happen, especially with radio being delivered over PCs, emails over TV and video over handphones,” he said, noting that that was just the beginning.
It was for this reason, he said, that the government decided to bite the bullet and adopted a legal regime that embraced convergence.
KL Converge is premised on the convergence of communications, broadcasting, digital technology and creative content like films, animation, music and drama. — Bernama