Move To Have Insurance Cover For Veteran Actors, Musicians in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (Bernama) -- The Information, Communications and Culture Ministry proposes to establish an insurance scheme for veteran actors and musicians as well as film production crew, Minister Dr Rais Yatim said on Thursday. He said a committee comprising representatives of film-making associations and the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) would meet next month on the matter. "We will move as fast as possible. We will have a meeting next month. We hope the proposal to have an insurance scheme can be realised," he told reporters after chairing a meeting of the ministry with representatives of 20 film-making associations, here. Rais also said that the committee would coordinate the prices of local visual products for broadcasters in the country and, as such, negotiations would be held with satellite television network station Astro, Media Prima and Radio Television Malaysia (RTM), Malaysia's national broadcasting station, soon. His approach was adopted to help move the national film-making industry to a higher level, like the foreign film industries, he added. "Last year, for example, English language films grossed more than RM370 million while local films only managed around RM112 million. We have to determine how the local film industry can be assisted in terms of quality," he said. (US$1=RM3.06) Rais said there was a proposal to channel a portion of the proceeds from foreign films into a welfare fund and to discuss with producers of compact discs how to raise the income of local singers. Commenting on the issue of copyright piracy which often occurred from broadcasting films and dramas on the Astro First channel, he said it was felt that there should be a gap of at least three months between the final screening of a film in cinemas and its broadcast over the Astro channel. "This should also be dealt with by the film-making associations. If they can come to an agreement on it, we can impose a condition in the Multimedia Act," he said. Earlier, Rais handed over about RM15,000 from the ministry to each of the 20 film-making associations for administrative expenses. -- BERNAMA