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SINGAPORE: Singapore is planning to have a new media hub.
To be called Mediapolis, the area will be set in the One-North vicinity, alongside the two existing hubs - Fusionopolis and Biopolis - for information technology and the biomedical sciences.
Times may be bad but the media industry seems to be holding up, says Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Lee Boon Yang.
Currently employing over 50,000 people and contributing 4.5 per cent to Singapore's GDP, the local media industry has been growing with more international co-productions and big names like Lucasfilm.
Thus, the government sees the need for a media epicentre.
Dr Lee said: "It will serve as the crucible for creating and sustaining powerful chain reactions to produce, package and distribute compelling and attractive media content and products for consumers around the world.
“It will have media facilities not found elsewhere in Singapore and become the ideal home for international and local media companies, media schools and R&D firms."
Mediapolis will occupy an area the size of 20 football fields.
Within it will be sound stages, digital post-production studios, work lofts, as well as retail, recreation and accommodation facilities.
And around the new media hub will be the arts community at Wessex Estate, Fusionopolis' research and development (R&D) centres and nearby institutes of higher learning.
The project will kick off next year, with 1.2 hectares of land available for development from the first quarter.
The first phase is targeted for completion by 2020, with an 18-hectare second phase due to kick off after that.
The park already has its first tenant on board - local media company Infinite Frameworks, which recently co-produced the animated feature film “Sing to the Dawn”.
Infinite Frameworks plans to build three sound stages for local industry and Hollywood.
Sound stages are large warehouse-like studios with controlled environments that can accommodate large sets for feature films.
"The kind of investments you're looking at range from about S$80 million to S$100 million - that's what we're looking at for entry point," said the managing director of Infinite Frameworks, Mike Wiluan.
"We're seeing a lot of Western companies, Western studios coming to Asia and we're looking at Singapore as being the stepping stone to the rest of Asia."
The authorities are in talks with other companies and aims to have a mix of existing media firms in Singapore and new media firms.
While there is no overall sum for the development, which is expected to be industry-driven, each new building is expected to cost anything between S$30 million and S$120 million, excluding land cost.
Overall, the local media industry is expected to add 10,000 new jobs by 2015.
In another report, Salon Media Management, the Singapore-based unit of the Salon Film Group in Hong Kong, has offered a new fund worth S$100 million to promote the media industry in Singapore.
The fund will help to produce a slate of film, TV, animation and related interactive game development content over the next five years.
Combined with a recently announced S$600 million film fund by another company, RGM Entertainment, there is now more than S$1 billion worth of media funds based in Singapore.
- CNA/yt
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