Exclusive Interview: FINAS’s Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf

PREMIUM: Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf, Malaysia’s secretary general of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, tells TV Asia Pacific that Malaysia is following Korea’s lead as it looks to position itself as a producer of world-class content.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What challenges are you experiencing as you seek to raise the profile of Malaysian content globally?
SIARAF: When we are trying to export our products to the international market, we’ve got to make sure the quality is world class. This is the real problem. To come up with world-class production, [the investment has to come] from the government as well as the producer himself. As it is now, the producers are still asking, How much can the government contribute? They should plan for [financing high-quality productions] and get the investors. There is a limitation to what the government can do. We need to educate our industry players so that they can really progress in the future. That is one of the challenges among the producers. We also need to know what the market needs. What are the needs and wants of the international market? We are trying to emulate what Korea has done. Everywhere in the world now knows about K-pop [Korean pop music]. We have a lot to offer to the world.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What have been the greatest achievements for the Malaysian content business in the last year?
SIARAF: The number of companies joining us [at international markets like MIPCOM] is increasing. The second improvement we have seen is in the number of companies who are sellers. The number of people interested in the international market is increasing. This year we have 200 titles ready for sale or co-production. Our catalogue has very strong support and interest from international players.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What qualities make Malaysia a good media capital for the Asia Pacific region?
SIARAF: As far as our intention to be a hub of media in Asia, or the ASEAN region for that matter, we are moving towards that by organizing a number of international events. We are organizing the Kuala Lumpur Communications & Creative Industry Mart next year. We want to see the development of the media industry in Malaysia as well as show the world what we have to offer to them in this area. We are working together [with other ASEAN countries]. We are going to have a co-production agreement with Singapore. We are inviting foreign partners to invest in our shows. When they are investing, we hope that we can give them some kind of rebate. [These are some of the] initiatives the government has taken to ensure the development of the content industry in Malaysia.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: How have you been investing in talent so that you have the human resources to produce world-class content?
SIARAF: Manpower definitely is a very important ingredient to the success of any investment that we make. We have a number of international universities producing graduates in the [media] field. At the same time, there are master classes conducted by FINAS. There’s no point in having incentives if we have no manpower to manage [the productions]. That’s why we’re continuing to do human-resource development: courses, seminars. We are blessed with multiple languages in Malaysia. English, Mandarin, Tamil. This is a real asset for the development of the industry.

TV ASIA PACIFIC: What else can FINAS do to accelerate the growth of the Malaysian content sector?
SIARAF: Beside FINAS we have some other agencies—MDeC, MCMC; the latest addition is MyCreative Ventures, whereby the government allocates some funds, about $70 million, to fund creative content. We feel it’s very important to accelerate the growth of this content industry.