Government Grants for Film and Television Projects

Ms Janice Koh asked the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (a) how many joint projects and how much money has MDA invested through loans and co-production funds with local and international film and television partners since 2004; (b) what are the strategic outcomes expected from them; (c) whether these investments come with conditions that directly benefit the Singapore film and television industry; and (d) how many projects remain undelivered and what is the total amount of unrecovered loans to date.

Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Since FY2003, MDA has co-invested a total of $109 million with local industry to undertake a total of 253 projects in film and television. This has generated an additional $320 million of non-MDA funding, of which 67% is from overseas.

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The strategic outcomes expected, and achieved, are the building of local industry's portfolio and capabilities to co-produce high quality content with international as well as local appeal. Singapore's independent production companies such as Oak3 Films and Sparky Animation have established good track records in working with international partners such as Discovery, the BBC, National Geographic, the History Channel, PBS Kids, in addition to MediaCorp.

These funding arrangements have conditions that directly benefit local industry in four ways: employment of our local talent; additional investment; exposure to and transfer of best practices in international production; and a wider total market for content Singapore participates in making.

A total of 58 projects are still in various stages of production or post-production for film and television, in line with agreed milestones. The total amount of unrecovered loans to date is $3.5 million and MDA will take measures for recovery of loans, including initiating legal proceedings.