Singapore and Korea enter into co-production arrangement

21 June 2007

Singapore– The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has entered into a co-production arrangement with the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC) to foster greater collaboration among Singaporean and Korean broadcasters and media companies. The agreement was signed on June 21 by the Chairman of KBC, Dr Cho Chang Hyun and MDA Chairman, Dr Tan Chin Nam in conjunction with BroadcastAsia 2007 held in Singapore.
Approved co-productions will be considered as national productions of the countries and qualify as local content in fulfilling local content programming hours by broadcasters and for schemes of assistance for co-productions. Both countries will not impose discriminatory restrictions on the import, distribution and exhibition of TV programmes. The scope of the agreement covers animation, dramas and documentaries, and allows new forms of broadcast and audio-visual production to be subsequently included through an exchange of letters.
The arrangement follows an MOU signed between the two parties on January 19, 2005, within the framework of the Trade in Services Agreement, under the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement which is expected to be signed at the 13th ASEAN Summit in November 2007 in Singapore.
MDA's Dr Tan expects to sign more media co-operation MOUs later this year with agencies including Korean Culture and Content Agency (KOCCA) and the Korea Games Development and Promotion Institute to facilitate industry collaborations in the respective areas, training exchanges and attendance at each other's trade events and festivals.
Other government-to-government co-production arrangements which Singapore has entered into include agreements with Canada, Japan and New Zealand. The Tattooist, co-production between Eyeworks Touchdown (New Zealand) and MediaCorp Raintree Pictures (Singapore); The Future is Wild, 3-D animated TV series by Nelvana (Canada) and ST Electronics (Singapore), and Clang Invasion, an animated TV series by Decode Entertainment (Canada) and Scrawl Studios (Singapore) are works resulting from the arrangements. Similar agreements with Australia and Italy are expected to be signed later in the year.