THE Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) appointed seven new members to its board on Friday.
The new members - hailing from the academia, media and the business industries - were appointed on a two-year term by Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yan, from Jan 1.
Current chairman of the board, Dr Tan Chin Nam, paid tribute to the outgoing board members and expressed confidence in the new team.
'The new members bring with them a wealth of experience and expertise from different parts of the media ecosystem,' he said.
'I am certain that the new board will be able to guide and set the right strategic directions for MDA and turn Singapore into a Trusted Global Media Capital.'
Dr Tan also said he views the Singapore media industry as being on the right track and ready to take on the challenges ahead.
'Despite the current global economic slowdown, we are geared up to exploit the opportunities in the media industry,' he said.
'We remain optimistic about the future as our efforts in the rollout of the media industry blueprint, Media 21, and promotion of Made-by-Singapore content under the collective branding of Singapore Media Fusion, have yielded considerable results locally and internationally.'
Boosted by the availability of more than $1 billion in funds based in Singapore for investments in media projects, MDA has made substantial strides in building a vibrant media ecosystem both for foreign media companies to locate to as well as for local enterprises and talents to thrive in.
Over the years, Singapore's international profile has risen with signature media events hosted in the country, such as the inaugural '3DX: 3D Film & Entertainment Technology Festival' in November 2008 which attracted prominent CEOs from the film industry.
Efforts to seed a culture of innovation through support for research and development in interactive digital media are showing early results with academic institutions and young startups.
The media industry is also benefiting from targeted funding and other support initiatives to help them innovate, develop and deploy cutting-edge digital media services and solutions for the global market.
Alongside this growth, Made-by-Singapore content and services continue to travel the world, fuelled by MDA's support for local producers to create quality and compelling content that is increasingly being made for multiple platforms.
Viewers in more than 50 countries including Argentina, the United States, Germany, New Zealand, India and China can now catch Singapore films and TV programmes. In 2008, 16 local films were commercially released in Singapore - three times the average number produced annually in the past five years.
MDA said in a statement on Friday that it would will continue to pave the way for the Singapore media industry to flourish and expand.
Specifically, it will encourage collaboration with established media players to improve home-grown talents and experiment with new formats of video and audio broadcasting through digital technologies to remain relevant and updated.
