Creative Content Association Malaysia (CCAM) is an industry led government funded association of the leading content creators in Malaysia formed in 2012 for the express purpose of promoting and exporting local content and creative services to overseas markets and international broadcasters. This will be done by utilizing the latest digital technology, creativity, as well as by exploiting the unique cultural of Malaysia.

Objectives

CCAM was established with the following objectives:

To support the government efforts in the international marketing of Malaysian creative content.
To discuss and disseminate information, potential market opportunities, and current news related to the creative content industry.
To provide views, procedures, policy suggestions based on that which will be introduced by the Malaysian Government to assist creative content producers in increasing their efforts to export local content abroad.
To develop strategies in the short and long term plans to increase the quality of content of members and to market them regionally and internationally.
Mission

CCAM’s mission is as follows:

To collaborate with Developmental Agencies like FINAS, MDeC, SKMM and Matrade.
To research into and penetrate international creative content markets.
To assist in efforts to increase the skill and abilities in producing local creative content.
To assist in optimising the commercialization and management of the intellectual property rights of local creative content.
To participate in content market activities abroad; and
To co-organize an annual event for the creative content industry with the aim of promoting Malaysia as a hub for content development

Malaysia At A Glance

Malaysia is a tropical nation in the Southeastern region of Asia, located between 2°and 7°North of the Equator. It consists of two geographical regions divided by the South China Sea. West Malaysia or Peninsular Malaysia shares a land border on the north with Thailand and is connected by the Johore Causeway on the south with Singapore. East Malaysia consisting of the island of Labuan and the states of Sabah & Sarawak, occupies the northern part of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia and Brunei. Centrally located in South East Asia, it serves as an important gateway to this part of the world that is home to over half of the global population.

Geography

The two distinct parts of Malaysia, separated from each other by the South China Sea, share a largely similar landscape. Malaysia’s size is similar to Norway but three quarters of the land is made up of ancient rainforests, shoreline mangrove and mountain top oak trees. A single kilometre plot of forest in Sabah or Sarawak may well contain more than 800 different species of trees. There is also a rich diversity of flowers, birds, ferns, insects and animals ranging from the Orang Utans to the elusive Sumatran rhino. Malaysia is a treasure trove of biodiversity. The Straits of Malacca, lying between Sumatra and West Malaysia, is arguably the most important shipping lane in the world. Malaysia also has 4,675km of stunning coastline with beautiful sandy beaches.

People, Culture & Heritage

Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious country with a rich cultural heritage. Malaysia has close to 28 million people, made-up of three main ethnic groups of Malays (51%), Chinese (24%), Indians (8%) and others minorities (17%). Its rich multi-cultural history presents a unique variety of food, traditions, festivals, arts & craft, costumes and even architectural styles. Malaysia is home to an array of languages and dialects from the Malay, Chinese and Indian traditions, with Bahasa Malaysia being the national language. English is widely spoken. All the major religions of the world have their devotees here as manifested in the number of beautiful mosques, churches, colourful temples and other place of worship that are scattered all over the country.

Currency

The Malaysia Currency is in Ringgit Malaysia (RM) and sen (cents). Notes are issued in RM1, RM5, RM10, RM50 and RM100 denominations while coins are in 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen denominations. As against the USD the exchange rate is RM3.03 to USD1. Foreign currencies can be exchanged at all banks and authorized money changers throuhout the country. Major credit cards are widely accepted.

States

Malaysia is made up of 13 states and three Federal Territories. The 11 states on Peninsular Malaysia are Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Johor. Malaysia Borneo make up the rest. The three Federal Territories are Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya (both in the Peninsular) and Labuan in Sabah.

Malaysia has invested heavily in the development of this sector over the past 10 years. We will build on current initiatives already started by the Government and enhance their returns (under the National Creative Industry Policy managed by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture and the MSC Malaysia Creative Multimedia Content Initiative run by the Multimedia Development Corporation, or MDeC). Current efforts by Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and other bodies such as the Access Forum, Content Forum and Consumer Forum have initiated interactions across the industry as a means to obtain feedback on the appropriate measures to further grow the industry.

This initiative represents a new industry-led public-private collaboration to grow the export segment at 20 percent a year and the domestic segment at 13 percent a year. The opportunities for improvement lie in developing talent for content creation and services, in providing necessary funding for local productions and in marketing our creations and capabilities internationally. Beyond GNI benefits, this EPP will help preserve Malaysia’s unique culture and heritage for the 21st century and future generations.

At present, Malaysia is behind benchmark countries in terms of creative industry contribution to GDP. The marked preference for foreign productions and content manifests itself in audience ratings of TV programmes as well as traffic to major international websites. On the other hand, local productions like the animation series "Upin and Ipin" or the popular documentary "Jejak Rasul" have enjoyed considerable local success and have even made inroads into regional markets. This indicates a latent demand for quality local productions in Malaysia and regionally, a demand that is still underserved today.

Malaysia Film Industry

There has been a tremendous increase in the production of multi-media contents including feature films and TV programs over the last 10 years more so after the implementation of the National Film Policy in 2005 and the National Creative Industry Policy of 2011. Funding, Incentives, training programs have been provided to make this sector more attractive for investments and provide more opportunities for industry players. The focus of the Policies is to develop the infrastructure and ecosystem of the local industry and to be able to create products of international appeal. The outcome of the Policies has seen an increasing interest in the cinema-going public and rapid growth in production from an average of 12 features a year in 2000 to 45 in 2011. It is expected that there will be at least 70 local films produced and screened in 2012.

Currently, there are 119 cinemas throughout the country with 725 screens and more than 134,343 seats. Total box-office takings for 2011 is RM125 million from the total of RM601.91 million. Foreign films have always dominated Malaysian cinemas, television and home video rental outlets. In 2011 Hollywood films accounted for 62.5% of cinemas admissions while Malaysian films 20.75%, Hong Kong films 12.2% and 4.55% others.

Apart from domestic market Malaysian films are exported to neighbouring Singapore and Brunei which share the same language. Some of the titles have penetrated the Philippines and Indonesian market and, of late, India and South Korea. Some products also found their way into television in South Africa.

The TV programs industry has also seen tremendous growth due to the demand from the growth of satellite TV, Free to air stations as well as the growth of IPTV and cable.

Film Events

The most important film event is the annual Malaysian Film Festival. Backed by FINAS (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia) and usually held in the month of August. The Festival awards the artistic achievements of industry players.

Another event is the Anugerah Skrin TV3 (TV3 Screen Award) which honours the best TV programmes as well as films. This event is organised by the country's foremost private TV station, TV3. Similar in concept, is Anugerah Seri Angkasa (Seri Angkasa Award), organised by the public television station Radio Television Malaysia (RTM). Seri Angkasa Award also includes radio programmes.

Periodically Malaysia hosts international events such as Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the Commonwealth Film Festival and the Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival. Beside these, foreign cultural centers such as Japan, France, Germany and Australia also regularly hold their own film week.

Rules & Regulation

Activities in the local film bussiness require government licensing and the products subject to censorship before public release. A foreign production company wishing to film in Malaysia also requires a permit and subjected to government rules and regulations. To facilitate foreign film producers a special one stop center agency known as PUSPAL was set up. PUSPAL is the acronym for Central Agency for Application of Filming and performance by Foreign Artistes, which is under the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture (it's Malay abbreviation, KPKK). PUSPAL's main function is to coordinate and consider all applications for filming and performance by foreign artistes and simplify the procedures.

Procedures

The foreign production company must first appoint a licensed local sponsor (a Production Service Company or Production Host) registered with FINAS, to handle the application procedure in Malaysia on its behalf.

The sponsor's scope of responsibilities includes:

Preparing a letter of undertaking and ensuring that the foreign producer abides by the terms and conditions set in thr JK-PUSPAL's (PUSPAL-COMMITTEE) approval letter;
Obtaining a professional visit pass for artistes and crew members (referred to by its Malay acronym, PLIK) before filming begins;
Ensuring that filming does not take place in security or prohibited areas; and
Being present during all the filming session.
A form for this application known as the KPKK/PUSPAL form can be obtained from the Cultural Policy Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture Malaysia or downloaded from the KPKK website at http://www.kpkk.gov.my. Completed forms for submission must be accompanied by the following supporting documents:

Immigration form IM.12
Performa Form B (LHDN or Inland Revenue)
Form No.1 Royal Malaysia Custom Department (if filming equipment is brought in)
Script/storyboards/synopsis for each segment/blueprint/treatment
The documents must be submitted at least 30 days before filming begins.