By Nigel Edgar
KUCHING, April 26: Sarawak government welcomes with open arms any international filmmakers to come to Sarawak for filmmaking.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the state government would make it easy and offer attractive incentives, especially for international filmmakers and production houses, to come to the state to make films and movies.
“The state government is very much encouraging something like this, whether the production house is from China or other parts of South East Asia. We will try to make things easy.
“Definitely, we can come up with good incentives if there’s anyone wanting to come here for filming or even to participate in other forms of industries that could be beneficial to both parties — win-win situation,” he told reporters after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Asian International Film Festival and Awards (AIFFA) 2019 Sarawak committee and one of China’s renown production house City Role Holdings Group Limited, here, today.
The objective of the MoU is to enhance current filming possibility in Sarawak for City Role Holdings Group Limited via AIFFA and the possibility to enhance film and other business and creative opportunities in Sarawak and Asean.
Abdul Karim hoped that AIFFA and City Role Holdings Group Limited could work together to produce some films in Sarawak after the MoU.
“This is a very big group in China, and they are connected to property development as well. Hopefully, they can find Sarawak to be an interesting place for them to make movies.
“Sarawak actually not an alien place for China filmmaking. There was one China movie shot in Miri — The River of Tears — which was two years ago. I went to China to launch that movie actually. Hopefully, we can work out something (this time),” he said.
Earlier, Abdul Karim launched AIFFA Biz World 2019, where film industry players such as international movie stars, directors, cinematographers and producers get together for talks, exhibitions as well as to establish some networking with each other.
The event is also open to the public.
“AIFFA Biz World fulfils a huge role in ensuring that the best Asean films continue to be made,” he said in his speech at the opening ceremony.
“Asean will reveal its depth as a database of new talent because we are at the heart of a large, diverse and vibrant population,” he added. — DayakDaily
