New Finas board appointed, says Gobind

Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said today the new board of directors of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) has been appointed and will be introduced to the public next week.

He said the new line-up consists of, among others, people experienced in finance and corporate restructuring.

"At the same time, we are also appointing a group of advisers consisting of people who are actually involved in the industry, who understand the problems of the industry and will be able to assist us to try to solve current problems," he told reporters after the launch of the Malaysian Entrepreneurs Festival in Kuala Lumpur.

Gobind said the group of advisers will also advise on the appointment of Finas’ new director-general.

"Hopefully, next week, we can have a press conference where we can introduce all of these people to the public," he said.

Finas is under a probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over several allocations it received in 2017.

Earlier, in his speech, Gobind said the government is pushing for greater participation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), a platform for SMEs to market their products overseas.

He said about 3,300 SMEs have joined the DFTZ platform since it was implemented last year.

Cross-border online business will be the norm and SMEs must quickly jump onto this bandwagon to be part of the digital economy, he said.

He also said that the Southeast-Asian Internet economy is expected to grow from US$50 billion to US$250 billion (about RM200 billion to RM1 trillion) over the next seven years.

"In this digital age, connectivity is key. My ministry has been actively working to increase broadband speed and lower the price of services in order to create the most conducive conditions and infrastructure to develop and grow business and the economy," he said. - Mkini