Cendana-Matrade tie-up to grow export of arts, culture sector

KUALA LUMPUR: The Cultural Economy Development Agency (Cendana) will collaborate with Malaysia External Trade Development Corp ( Matrade) to provide opportunities for Malaysian artists and practitioners to tap into their respective programmes, facilities and networks to grow the export of the arts and culture sector.

Cendana’S founding chief executive officer, Izan Satrina Mohd Sallehuddin, said the collaboration would, among others, facilitate greater access for the local arts and culture community to Cendana’s newly-announced Mobility Funding Programme as well as Matrade’s export-promotion funding programmes such as Market Development Grand and Services Export Fund if they qualify according to the set criteria.

“The programme provides support to local artists to present high- quality works that express and enrich Malaysia’s artistic diversity, as well as increase arts appreciation and participation in Malaysia and abroad.

“It also supports local artists to participate in international festivals, exhibitions, trade fairs, biennales and conferences, among others, in addition to supporting our artists nurture relationships with a view of developing new markets and audiences for their work,” she told reporters after the announcement of the collaboration yesterday.

Matrade’s chief executive officer, Dr Mohd Shahreen Zainooreen Madros, said the collaboration would allow the national trade promotion agency to strengthen the export promotion of the other components of the creative economy, namely arts and culture sector.

“The national trade promotion agency has always supported the development of the local arts industry and promotion of Malaysian art expressions internationally through its global network.

“In the past recent years, Matrade has been actively involved in promoting Malaysian arts in major cities of London, Melbourne, Shanghai and Miami. Matrade has 46 offices worldwide,” he said.

Mohd Shahreen said some of the areas where Matrade could assist under the collaboration included identifying industry opportunities as well as providing advisory services to the local companies intending to export their products and services.

“If there is a need, Malaysian exporters can also leverage on Matrade’s overseas offices when meeting potential buyers and partners,” he said.

For the past five years, Malaysia has exported RM14.6 million worth of visual arts ( paintings, drawings and sculpture) and these arts were exported mainly to Switzerland, the UK, Hong Kong, the US and United Arab Emirates.

However, Mohd Shahreen said, the numbers were still relatively small despite its potential, which could go beyond physical exports as it also has services components that could be marketed globally such as Intellectual Property, creative contents as well as commercial talents and professionals. — Bernama