Producers tap into Singapore funds1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSingapore’s lavish film funds have become the stuff of Asian biz legend. The city-state’s Media Development Authority has earmarked a great deal of coin for the making of movies, but the take-up has been slow so far.
While the local industry is outwardly pleased with the MDA’s efforts to help the biz, insiders say privately that Singapore is still not as easy a place in which to make movies as Thailand, which is more active in its wooing of foreign projects.
Singapore also has a small population, and faces stiff competition from regional giants like India and China. The small nation’s famous cosmopolitanism, with its Indian, Malay, Chinese and Western population, also means it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis.
But the hesitant take-up of funds on offer highlights a more challenging issue — though money is available, there is a shortage of viable projects that can compete internationally on which that money can be spent.
Still, the MDA is happy the fund is showing steady growth, because film financing is part of Singapore’s broader policy of establishing itself as a regional showbiz hub.
