The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia is working with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to establish a new Digital Content Ecosystem (DICE) policy. This policy aims to strengthen the local digital content industry and ultimately position Malaysia as the leader in digital content creation and production in the region.
The Minister of Communications and Multimedia said that Malaysia, which sits in the heart of South East Asia, is well poised to further grow and solidify its position as the game development hub of the region.
Malaysia is attractive to digital content and creative tech studios due to its youthful demographic, access to talent with cultural influences from both the East and West and a higher education system that has a focused tech-track, he said in a statement.
The DICE Policy, to be spearheaded by MDEC, aims to accelerate the digital content creative industry as a driver of economic growth in Malaysia.
The policy will focus on attracting investments, building local talent and companies and strengthening the ecosystem through government and private sector partnership.
It also aims to advance research, IP creation, commercialisation, branding and marketing capabilities in order to improve its export potential. It will also look at best practices to promote a healthy animation and gaming environment for all users.
According to another report, the Minister also noted that equally important, this policy will also look at Best Practices in order to promote a healthy animation and gaming environment for all users.
In order to develop the new DICE policy, the government has decided to take a collaborative approach. MDEC will be organising town halls and focus group discussions with the industry, academia and those related and interested in this industry.
The Chief Executive Officer of MDEC stated that Malaysia needs a comprehensive development plan to fully take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.
MDEC, through its Creative Content Team, has been working hard to grow the local creative content industry over the past few years. This has resulted in Malaysia enjoying a head-start in digital content development in the region and Malaysia’s talents and creative IP’s are gaining global recognition. The DICE strategy will help to unleash the talent of our digital content and drive faster growth.
The national game development industry recorded exports of RM684 million in 2017 registering a 46 per cent year-on-year growth between 2016-2017. This coming from just over 60 game studios in this sector.
Malaysia is also now home to the biggest digital content industry platforms in Southeast Asia such that cover animation, VFX, new media as well as games, interactive media, AR/VR.
In conjunction with the announcement of the DICE strategy, the Minister witnessed the signing of a landmark global publishing deal between a local animation studio and a London-based video game publisher; as well as the official launch of ‘Re:Legend’, a cooperative multiplayer JRPG game developed by another Malaysia-based gaming firm.
The minister was also present for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between MDEC and the Malaysia eSports Federation to collaborate towards the development, promotion and acceleration of the Malaysian eSports ecosystem.
DICE, spearheaded by MDEC, will seek to drive the growth of the digital content economy through its exports and talent development. MDEC will look at potential collaborations between the public and private sector, government, industry and academia to further the Nation’s ambitions in this sector.
The strategy is anticipated to spur a competitive, commercially successful industry supported by a cohesive ecosystem of talent, business, government and legislation, providing opportunities for long-term ecosystem growth.
As digital content catalyse the use of both technical and technological skills combined with art, creativity and design thinking, the uplift of digital content can be used as a leading policy initiative with spillover impact into other sectors of the economy.
