Shakib (second right) presents a certificate of appreciation to one of the participants of the Script to the Media Workshop & Varicam Workshop/EVA1 Cinematic Camera by Finas Sarawak yesterday. Also seen are (from left) Maffizan and Ahmad Idham.
KUCHING: The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia through the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) Sarawak acknowledged and emphasised the importance and necessity of creative industry in Sarawak.
Its deputy secretary-general (Policy) Shakib Shakir said the creative industry is one of the six initiatives of the ministry and the most important platform in intensifying information delivery services and its contents.
“The creative industry plays an important role in presenting the distinctiveness in this state and not just concentrating in Kuala Lumpur alone.
“Our minister (Gobind Singh Deo) believes that Sarawak does have arts activists who have creative ideas and hidden talents in producing the best content, thus Finas started the pitching process here and is looking for talents suggestions for films, short stories, documentaries and others,” said Shakib at the closing ceremony of the Script to the Media Workshop & Varicam Workshop/EVA1 Cinematic Camera by Finas Sarawak at its auditorium here yesterday.
The workshops were held from March 17 to 19, and attended by close to 100 people, among whom were university and school students and working people.
Among those present were Finas chief executive officer Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri and Finas Sarawak senior assistant director Maffizan Saupie.
Commenting further, Shakib said the ministry through Finas will continue to organise more workshops and trainings to further strengthen the skills and talents in Sarawak.
At the ministry level, he said they had set a strategy to strengthen the creative industry in Malaysia through development of contents of various programmes and activities via funding such as the SineSKRIN project, an incubation programme for young professionals.
Other than that, he said they have introduced the Cross FIT (Film Industrial Training) programme to acknowledge the industry’s talents who have made the country proud by producing premieres and quality films.
Among the initiatives are the Intra-Sinema programme and ‘Sembang Skrin’ programme that gather young arts activists in education explorations programmes, he added.
He also said Portal Malaysia Creative Industry Xchange (MCIX), set to become a benchmark for the creative industry, will be officially launched next year.
“MCIX as an industry data networking hub is an important manifestation of ‘data is king’, as the energy to digital economy.
“It has the potential to be developed and could generate personal revenues in the future, based on the number of visitors to this website,” he said.
He informed that Finas would hold more pitching sessions in Sabah and Sarawak.
“This is to encourage more arts activists to produce creative and quality films and contents,” he said.