Ministry of Finance of Malaysia

11/20/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/21/2021 18:06

PEMULIHAN: PEMBAHARUAN Exhibition, Fergana Art

PEMULIHAN: PEMBAHARUAN Exhibition, Fergana Art

Speech 20 November 2021

YB SENATOR TENGKU DATUK SERI UTAMA ZAFRUL TENGKU ABDUL AZIZ

MINISTER OF FINANCE MALAYSIA

PEMULIHAN: PEMBAHARUAN EXHIBITION, FERGANA ART

20 NOVEMBER 2021 (SATURDAY)

9:50 AM

PUBLIKA

Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Md. Noor Yusof,
Chairman of Yayasan Hasanah

Yang Berbahagia Dato' Shahira Ahmed Bazari,
CEO of Yayasan Hasanah

Encik Sufian Abdullah,
CEO of UEM Sunrise

Encik Ameruddin Ahmad,
Director General National Art Gallery

Encik Jaafar Ismail
Founder, Fergana Art and Curator for PEMULIHAN: PEMBAHARUAN Art Project.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and good morning,

  1. First and foremost, allow me to express my gratitude to the organizer of the Pemulihan: Pembaharuan Exhibition for the honour of speaking today.
  2. The creative economy is growing faster than the larger economy and thus it is important for the Government to develop a broader policy encompassing all segments of the creative economy - intersecting and overlapping industries within the arts, sciences, information technology, entertainment, music, publishing, media, visual arts and motion pictures.
  3. In developed countries, the creative economy supports between 4% to 10% of the productive workforce. In the Malaysian context however, the creative economy contributes less than 2% to the national GDP.
  4. A large portion of workforce and participants in creative economy are on casual employment, more fashionably termed today as Gig Workers.
  5. I truly understand some of them are badly affected by this pandemic - given the limited safety net within this segment of economy. Hence, last year under the PENJANA initiative, the Government allocated a total of RM225 million via MyCreative Ventures Group that includes CENDANA-to boost the resilience of the creative economy through a combination of soft loans, grants and living assistance.
  6. For cash grants towards creative and cultural workers alone, the Government allocated to CENDANA RM10 million which is intended to assist the livelihoods of people within the industry. I am happy to say this has been 100% approved. As at today, we have distributed RM5.54 million of funds to 554 creative industries workers. RM8 million was further allocated to CENDANA under PEMULIH and this has been 82% approved.
  7. This year, the Government expanded social protection coverage under SOCSO by also contributing for self-employed and informal workers. This initiative will continue with a matching contribution of 80% by the Government and extended to cover 9 new categories of self-employed which most importantly, will also include artists. This initiative is expected to benefit more than 810,000 self-employed workers nationwide.
  8. In reviving the creative industry's activities, agencies such as FINAS, CENDANA and MyCreative Ventures will intensify various initiatives. Under Budget 2022, a total of RM188 million is provided to continue initiatives such as the Digital Content Fund, Digital Multimedia Content project, Film Incentive and the Perkasa Modal Insan Program.
  9. In addition, the Government next year provide via the Program Riuh Keluarga Malaysia an investment loan matching fund amounting to RM20 million. The move is expected to provide 5,000 new job opportunities.
  10. Household names such as Upin and Ipin, Agent Ali and BoBoiBoy are famous not only in the country but also across Southeast Asia. To bring more local animation to the international stage, the Government will allocate RM30 million through the Investment Loan Matching Scheme for the National Animation Platform initiative which will be operated by MyCreative Ventures.

Ladies and gentlemen,

  1. The creative economy presents an opportunity to reset the overall structural make-up of the national human resource planning and productivity.
  2. Additionally, creativity is a proven and viable channel to generate and enhance social cohesion. The need for this is intuitive in the Malaysian context.
  3. Creative activity is a key originator of new knowledge, innovation across the sciences, arts and technology. It is one of the many fundamental pillars in developing society.
  4. If you want to learn about a country's civilisation, one studies the culture and observes its creative expression to understand its people and their thinking. One watches the movies produced by the country, reads books by the country's authors or experiences visual art exhibitions such as this, all of which contribute to the larger narrative of our contemporary history.
  5. This exhibition is about the nation in the time of a devastating global pandemic. It presents a rare event, a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in drafting and writing history, as it happens.
  6. Hence, this is a modest effort, a continuation from the 1st edition done in June 2020. The earlier edition was a reflex response to the "attack and containment" of COVID-19.
  7. This edition, PEMULIHAN: PEMBAHARUAN is a more nuanced approach engaging 89 creative professionals from visual artists, writers, poets, social scientists, musicians, scientists, technologists, architects, photojournalists and editors.
  8. Even then the assortment of participants are only able to cover a narrow band of our national contemporary history.
  9. We can do more. There are more stories out there, which can only aggregate to a national narrative of what Malaysia and her people had to go through during this pandemic phenomenon.
  10. The sum total of chronicling and documenting our own contemporary history, from our own lens and perspectives, can only strengthen and enhance our national identity.
  11. Perhaps the most important outcome from writing history by ourselves - using all available creativity tools, will be to further affirm our National Unity by way of experiencing and sharing a common journey.
  12. This in a nutshell, is what this project is all about, beyond commercial interests and economic policies.
  13. To the 3 major sponsors - UEM Sunrise, Yayasan Hasanah & National Art Gallery, thank you for the contribution. Please continue your support towards the greater aim of us building a creative, innovative and culture-rich nation. Insya Allah.
  14. Once again thank you for having me today.

Wabillahi taufiq wal Hidayah Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.