Malaysia Sees Greater Potential For Creative Economy Cooperation With Indonesia - Fahmi

By Nik Nurfaqih Nik Wil

JAKARTA, Oct 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia sees significant opportunities to expand cooperation with Indonesia in the creative economy by building on their shared cultural heritage, historical ties and complementary strengths, says Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil.

He said the potential for greater collaboration extended across creative arts, intellectual property and music.

“This is a good opportunity for us to strengthen ties between Malaysia and Indonesia. The creative economy is a very vibrant economic sector with huge potential, and I hope we can find more common ground than differences,” he said at a dinner with representatives of Indonesia's creative industry, here, Tuesday night.

Also present were Malaysia's Ambassador-designate to Indonesia Datuk Muzafar Shah Mustafa, MyCreative Ventures Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Zainol Haqim Zainol Rashid, National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) CEO Datuk Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib and Bernama Deputy Editor-in-Chief (News Services) Mohd Shukri Ishak.

The Indonesian side was represented by members of the Jakarta Creative Economy Committee, EnMasse and Sun Eater Group.

Fahmi expressed hope that both countries could identify areas where their respective strengths complement each other, opening up further opportunities for cooperation and economic benefits.

“I believe this is the first step in a very long journey together, insya-Allah,” he said.

Fahmi, who arrived in Jakarta at 5.30 pm local time on Tuesday after attending Bali Tech Week, is scheduled to remain in the Indonesian capital until Thursday to attend the World Conference on Creative Economy (WCCE).

He is also scheduled to hold separate meetings with Indonesian Culture Minister Fadli Zon and Creative Economy Minister Teuku Riefky Harsya during his visit.

Speaking to Bernama, Fahmi highlighted the need to address challenges in expanding market access for Malaysian creative works in Indonesia, particularly in the film and music industries, while exploring opportunities for more Malaysian artistes to perform in the country.

He said the challenges would be discussed as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral creative industry cooperation, with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) scheduled to be signed on Wednesday.

“So this is what we will try to discuss. The MoU will be signed tomorrow, and from that MoU, we want to exchange data, look into training aspects and efforts to bring these works across from Malaysia to Indonesia and Indonesia to Malaysia,” he said.

-- BERNAMA