SINGAPORE: Ten Asia-Pacific economies have signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) to collaborate and make the region a hotbed for the gaming sector.

The 10 economies are Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

The document was signed in Singapore on the sidelines of the first-ever Games Convention Asia, which has attracted over 80 exhibitors from 13 countries.

Under the agreement, a network of Singapore companies - called the Games Exchange Alliance - will help gaming studios in the region with the commercialisation process.

Developers from around the region are excited at the new prospects all this will bring.

"We're all beginners in this industry, but this is a very booming, growing market. And I think we can align together for a bigger piece of the pie in this global market," said James Hong from Sony Computer Entertainment, Hong Kong.

Games Convention Asia was opened by the Second Minister of Information, Communications and the Arts, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.

The global gaming industry is estimated to be worth almost at US$49 billion and almost 40% of that is driven by the Asia Pacific market.

Some market watchers are expecting to see growth of 10% annually in the region.

Dr Balakrishnan said Asia will take the lead eventually in online games. And Singapore is poised to get a chunk of the gaming pie because of its good infrastructure and pool of talent.

"The key thing is to be able to create, in a sense, diverse multilingual, multicultural teams and I believe this is an area Singapore has a competitive advantage because we're one of the easiest places in the world to assemble multinational teams. You can literally just come into Singapore, plug and play," he said.

Plug and play is what some Singapore students are doing. They have just returned from a study trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and have developed a mobile game that is all set to go commercial.

The Interactive Digital Media programme office has received 50 gaming proposals from universities and polytechnics in Singapore.

The government will pump in S$20 million to fund 14 of these projects that will involve some 400 researchers.

And to boost further growth in the computer gaming industry, a wider strategy of games generation, distribution and access to a wider market needs to be formulated.

"You need smart money to be involved. That means an ecosystem in which venture capitalists, people who understand this industry, who know what will work and what will not work, and are prepared to take calculated risks to invest in these start ups and these enterprises," said Dr Balakrishnan. - CNA/ir