KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia would like to see its culture go global, much the same way South Korea has been able to do in recent years through the marketing film and other cultural symbols. Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin argued that the Korean creative industry has pushed Korean culture onto the global population. “The contribution by the creative industry should not be seen purely from the economic perspective, but also on how it can develop the potential of the younger generation in character building and creating a stronger identity, developing a local culture and spreading national brands to the world and in promoting the tourism sector while attracting foreign investments,” the deputy PM said at the launch of the KRU Group of Companies' Corporate Social Responsibility Program (CSR) at KRU Studios on Wednesday. Yassin continued to argue that Korea should be seen as an example of being able to export their movies, television shows and music across the globe. He called on Malaysia to use this model as a means of promoting its culture abroad. He argued the Malaysian government has already created numerous business and employment opportunities for creative industries as part of its plan to turn the country into a high-income nation by 2020. “According to Price Waterhouse Coopers analysis, the global creative industry's size will reach RM4.35 trillion for this year and is expected to reach RM6 trillion by 2015. “The local film industry, which is a branch under the creative industry, has registered a growth of 47 percent from 2009 to last year,” continued Yassin. And Malaysia's budding studios and film industry hope to pick up on the government's push, one studio executive told Bikyamasr.com. “I think there is a lot of truth to the Korean model. They were successful,” the executive said. “We just have to be aware that not anything will be successful internationally, it has to be of the quality that people expect, so we all in the film industry are working towards this end.”
