Over 9,000 creative industry players to benefit from PRISMA - Saifuddin

PUTRAJAYA: More than 9,000 creative industry players are set to benefit from the Malaysian Creative Industry Stimulus Package (PRISMA) amounting to RM89.2 million, says Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said PRISMA was a short-term initiative by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) to ensure the survival and sustainability of the country's creative industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, PRISMA focuses on three main strategies, namely facilitating the financing of creative content production; enabling the capacity and skills of creative industry players; and providing market access for local creative products.

"For this purpose, a total of RM89.2 million is provided under KKMM’s allocation to implement 32 programmes that include four categories, namely film; music; digital creative content and visual arts; performances and crafts," he said when launching PRISMA in a virtual event today.

He said a total of RM67.7 million of the allocation was in the form of grants, while RM9 million was for loans and RM12.5 million for broadcast slots.

"On average, 60 per cent of the 32 programmes have been improved in terms of standardising application procedures and processes, shortening time norms, as well as simplifying the process and method of distribution," he said.

Saifuddin said the programmes would be implemented in stages from today until June and further information on PRISMA could be obtained at www.kkmm.gov.my.

"Although the main goal is to help those in the creative industry during the pandemic, the evaluation process to channel the allocation will still be carried out to ensure the quality and value of the work produced can be improved," he said.

He said KKMM was also in the midst of preparing a comprehensive evaluation system for all creative industry activities under the ministry's facilitation, as each branch of the arts had different evaluation methods.

"We do not want to look at just how much is spent and on how many projects. That would be akin to having no assessment, but we want to know what the real impact is.

"For example, is it just a film that made it big in the box office, there may be films that do not do well in the box office but from a national standpoint, it may be very valuable, and that is the second stage that KKMM is looking at in detail," he said.

Saifuddin added that at least 40,000 job opportunities were expected to be created through some programmes under PRISMA.

-- BERNAMA