MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017, KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and China Intercontinental Communication Co.,Ltd (CICC) marked a momentous occasion today by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote trade of creative contents between Malaysia and China. The MoU signing was witnessed by Minister II of International Trade and Industry (MITI) YB Dato' Seri Ong Ka Chuan.

MATRADE was represented by its Chief Executive Officer Dato' Dzulkifli Mahmud and CICC by its Vice President Mr. Jing Shuiqing.

The MoU aims to strengthen communication and cooperation between media organisations in China and Malaysia by leveraging on China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. The MoU will see MATRADE and CICC working together to link industry players from both countries to embark on exchange of creative content (such as films, documentaries and television shows, among others) and business matching (through MATRADE's International Sourcing Programme) for the purpose of driving trade of creative contents for both nations. The collaboration will strengthen the existing professional ties between both countries and could also initiate the sharing of experience, knowledge and best practices with China.

According to Dato' Dzulkifli, the MoU is an important step forward for both parties to promote cultural exchange through each other's media channels. "This partnership will facilitate and coordinate the communications between media players of both countries. With this partnership, Malaysian media can rest assured that they have a partner in China to assist them in areas such as co-productions," he said.

The Malaysian government has identified creative content as one of the Entry Point Projects (EPP) under the Economic Transformation Programme to enhance capacity, capability and competency of the industry in producing world-class content and additionally making Malaysia a regional hub for digital content.
In the EPP, the creative content industry is expected to contribute RM3.04 billion to Gross National Income (GNI) and produce more than 10,000 jobs by year 2020. The industry is also targeted to have an annual growth rate of 20 percent.

In the latest figures recorded in 2015, creative content contributed RM9.55 billion and represents 6.4 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To date, Malaysia has exported RM6.8 billion worth of creative contents.

With China as one of Malaysia's biggest trading partners, the MoU sets to further strengthen China's and Malaysia's relationship by leveraging on the OBOR Initiative, which is a development strategy and framework of China's government to boost connectivity and cooperation between China and the rest of the world.

MATRADE as Malaysia's export promotion agency provides various export facilitation such as market intelligence, trade advisory, export promotion and capacity building programme for Malaysian companies. The agency, under MITI, has trade offices in Beijing (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Shanghai (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Guangzhou (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Chengdu (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) that functioned to help Malaysian companies penetrate into the China market.