Pinewood Iskandar eyes foreign investments in film production

THE creative industry in the state is expected to boom with Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios (PIMS) targeting to attract RM1.9bil in foreign production investments and create some 11,300 freelance jobs until 2020.

“Investors can look into areas such as pre-production, production, post-production, distribution and marketing, logistics, food, equipment rental, construction materials, hospitality and other services,” said Tourism, Trade and Consumerism Committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong.

He said this in reply to a question by Datuk Dr Adham Baba (BN-Pasir Raja) on the impact of the creative industry to the development of Johor during the state assembly sitting here yesterday.

Tee explained that PIMS, an internationally-renowned infrastructure facility, was viewed as a catalyst to spur the creative industry here.

He said Iskandar Malaysia had also started developing a suitable ecosystem to support PIMS and the creative sector.

In efforts to further enhance the industry, Tee said a state-level organisation – Filem Johor – had been set up to promote the state as an international film destination.

“Filem Johor is dedicated to managing and facilitating enquiries and preparations needed to speed up film production processes.

“Besides that, we also have MaGIC-X, which is a ‘gamification’ centre to support individuals or SMEs to market their commercial products,” he added.