A total of 35,000 jobs will be made available in the arts and creative industry through an allocation of RM100 million under the National People's Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (Pemulih) announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah (above) said the country's arts and creative industry players will benefit from Pemulih through departments and agencies under the ministry such as Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), and the Cultural Economy Development Agency (Cendana).
“The initiative targets more than 8,000 beneficiaries from various fields including singers, musicians, actors, scriptwriters, songwriters, theater activists, those in performing arts, publishing companies, and production and technical crew behind the scenes.
“This allocation will also be used to continue programmes under the Malaysian Creative Industry Stimulus Package (Prisma) implemented last February,” he said during a virtual session to announce the recipients of the Digital Content Fund (DKD) today.
Saifuddin said departments and agencies involved would implement 14 initiatives in the form of financing facilities, capacity building, market access and promotion, as well as productions on television and radio.
He also said 11,460 workers with production companies receiving DKD would receive contributions under the Social Security Organisation's (Socso) Self-Employment Social Security Scheme via the production workforce contribution initiative.
He said the ministry was directly involved in the implementation of two of Pemulih's three main focuses - pursuing the people's well-being agenda and supporting businesses by focusing on Internet connectivity, digital entrepreneurship, creative industry sustainability, and mental health.
He said telecommunication service providers also agreed to once again offer free one gigabyte daily data from Aug 1 to Dec 31, which is estimated to be worth RM500 million with 44 million registered users benefitting.
Through the Entrepreneur Digitalisation Empowerment Programme (Pupuk), the government is targeting at least 800,000 entrepreneurs to adopt digitalisation.
“The ministry through the Shop Malaysia Online and Go-eCommerce Onboarding campaigns together with industry players and e-commerce platforms is targeting benefits for more than 300,000 micro-traders and Small and Medium Enterprises from various groups with an allocation of RM200 million,” he said.
The minister also said the Digital Agriculture Technology (Digital AgTech) programme in collaboration with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Farmers’ Organisation will train 250 farmers to switch to digital platforms to increase revenue and online sales for more lucrative income.
Saifuddin said with the uncertain pandemic situation, the government was aware of the need for psychosocial support and in this regard, RTM has a special mental health slot in its Selamat Pagi Malaysia programme every day.
He also hoped the allocation of RM15 million to non-governmental organisations to address social issues such as mental health, homelessness, and other social issues would be fully utilised for the well-being of the people.
“I am confident that the National Recovery Plan implemented in stages and supported by Pemulih to protect the survival of the people and the sustainability of the various industries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic can bring us out of this situation.
“At the same time, we also need to take advantage of the opportunities and facilities provided especially in digitilisation, e-commerce, and the creative industries to further improve the skills of the digital economy as well as enrich local production works," he said.
- Bernama
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