Tuesday, September 21, 2010

E-Village, BioValley, MSC & ETP .... Bah. 2/3

Bahagian 1 di sini.

Ahem, banyak lagi lah projek yang Gagal, saya tahu.
Perwaja, Bank Bumiputra, sistem AP, PKFZ antara yang senang nak ingat.
Ada pengunjung blog tulis (secara perli) - Felda dan Taman Tamadun Islam. Heehee. Kesian tite eh.

Dan banyak projek yang hidup segan, mati tak mahu - seperti highway masuk Port Dickson dan beberapa highway lain, beberapa project corridor yang dilancarkan Tun Abdullah (antara sebab utama ialah beliau dah turun).
Tapi dah cukuplah tu samplenya.
Jangan negatif sangat terhadap negara sendiri.
Dan banyak projek yang patut dijadikan sempadan.


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INI DUA tulisan lama saya mengenai E-Village dan BioValley.
Sedih dan malu baca ni sekarang.
Apa dah jadi?
Saya tulis panjang-panjang cerita E-Village ni, dua tahun lepas tu, projek dah direcycle jadi BioValley!


Headline: Coming soon : Movieworld Malaysia
By REME AHMAD IN KUALA LUMPUR
7 Sept 2000.
MALAYSIA'S list of top stars does not go much beyond Michelle Yeoh, but the country wants to be a magnet for movie stars and is building a RM3-billion (S$1.3-billion) Hollywood-type complex for film-making, the core of which will open this month.
About 800 workers are rushing to turn disused tin mines at the edge of a forest in Dengkil, Selangor, into the high-technology Entertainment Village, or E-Village.Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad will launch the first phase of E-Village, which cost RM400 million, tomorrow.
"This will be the core of E-Village. From here, it will grow into the other areas," Mr Alan French, the project's general manager of marketing, told The Straits Times.
When completed in seven years, the local Tinseltown aims to be the top place in Asia for movie and television productions with eight sound stages, a studio for special effects, a dramatic art academy and post-production studios.
The total area slated for development is 485-ha, the size of 580 football fields.

Tan Sri Datuk Awang Had Salleh, chairman of Entertainment Village (Malaysia), the project, said: "We will use and apply a different set of technologies that not only make films or TV programmes and shows, but also that merge entertainment products and services.
"We will also see the birth of several downstream businesses or enterprises."
The project is next to Cyberjaya, an area wired with fibre-optic networks, which aims to grow into a city in the heart of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).
With the MSC criticised for lacking vibrancy after its launch five years ago, the government hopes E-Village will increase creative activity within the hi-tech corridor.
Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Leo Moggie said: "The E-Village project is expected to set the scene for the meeting of minds from all over the world and among those with talent, ideas, artistic and technological skills, to achieve one national goal - and that is to put Malaysia's innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship at the forefront of the global creative content supply chain."
E-Village will not compete with Hollywood or India's Bollywood, but, with cheaper costs, it aims to attract top talent from them and from other parts of the world.
Workers are now busy preparing the first phase called the Studio Precinct.
It will have one of Asia's biggest sound studios.
With a length of 50 m, a width of 40 m and a height of 16 m, the sound stage will be one of the biggest in Asia, said Mr French.
With a floor area of 2,000 sq m, it could easily be turned into a small village for feature films.
Or its overhead gantry could be used to set up a static helicopter scene.
Located nearby is a studio for making special effects, such as computer animation, and administrative offices.
E-Village's shareholders are local businessmen, who own 70 per cent equity, and British Aerospace vice-president Steve Grace, who owns the rest.
Malaysia has been under the bright lights before, after successfully playing hosts to two top Hollywood movies.
The thriller Entrapment, starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, was filmed against the backdrop of the Petronas Towers. Last year, Anna And The King, which starred Jodie Foster and Chow Yuen Fatt, was filmed in Ipoh, Penang and Langkawi.
Early last month, Bollywood hearthrob Shah Rukh Khan flew in to film his latest movie One, Two Ka Four.
Many Malaysians are proud that Bond girl Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian.
But not everyone is embracing the E-Village with enthusiasm.
Malaysia's main Islamic opposition party, PAS, has said the project could accelerate negative values.
Undeterred, E-Village's shareholders are already looking into the next two phases of the project.
They envisage the building of theme parks and resort facilities to ensure the complex will be a hive of activity. There will also be residential and commercial areas.
"Through the use of creative technologies and multimedia capabilities, we will create an entertaining environment that will include theme parks, innovative recreational and resort facilities," said Tan Sri Awang Had.
"In all, E-Village will be a tourist spot or visitor's destination that can provide the MSC a real boost."
The E-Village will work with the developer of the MSC, government-backed Multimedia Development Corporation, to cut through red tape in bringing in foreign film-makers.
"If a company wants to film here, through the MDC we will organise documentation to bring in equipment, staff and people from overseas," said Mr French.
"To attract people to come here, they don't have to go through the paperwork. It will be done very quickly."
Intense marketing has already begun, including a sales pitch to India by Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Datuk Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.
Film-makers from Europe, India and Australia have shown interest and are waiting for the Studio Precinct to be completed before making commitments. It is being marketed as a cheaper alternative to the more established regional studios.
"A major lure for foreign film-makers to bring their work here is the 40 per cent reduction compared with international rates for digital production," said E-Village's vice-chairman Datuk Ibrahim Abdul Ghaffar.
Mr French said details of the cost to rent the facilities were being worked out.
Funding for the first phase of the project had been generated internally.
The shareholders now hope to attract investors for the second and third phases.
The RM1.5 billion phase two will include a theme park, a "mini-Malaysia" park and the recreations of parts of Asian cities such as Bali, Koh Samui and Madras.
Phase three might offer health farms and shopping areas.
And who knows? In the future, Michelle Yeoh could be just one of Malaysia's galaxy of international stars.

PICTURE: ASIAN HOLLYWOOD: A giant sound studio, as large as an aircraft hangar, is the centrepiece of Malaysia's E-Village, as shown in this artist's impression (right). The layout map of the entire complex is shown above.

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Headline: Malaysia now wants a slice of the biotech pie
By REME AHMAD IN KUALA LUMPUR
2 Oct 2002.
HOT on the heels of its plans to compete head-on with Singapore in the services sector, Malaysia yesterday also spelt out its vision of being a biotechnology hub.
Its aim is to attract investments worth at least US$10.5 billion (S$18.6 billion) within a decade, officials say.
The initiative runs head-on with similar plans unveiled by Singapore's Economic Development Board's Industry 21 Plan, under which the biomedical sciences is to become one of the key pillars of the Republic's manufacturing sector.
By 2010, EDB has said it aims for Singapore to be home to 15 world-class companies, and the region's centre for clinical trials and drug development.
Signalling Malaysia's entry into the field, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday launched the country's first international biotechnology convention here. The four-day meeting featured both foreign and local researchers.
Speaking at the opening, Dr Mahathir said biotechnology must be established as 'another pillar' in the development of Malaysia's knowledge economy.
'We invite all of you to join us in this journey and help us in achieving our aspiration to make Malaysia one of the key biotechnology hubs in the world, while reaping the great potential benefits from our greatly diversified bio-resources.
'This, in short, is Malaysia's Biotechnology Agenda,' he said.
Singapore and Malaysia are already competing for the same pie in the services sector, including ports, education and health tourism.
The Malaysian plan includes setting up a special zone for biotech research called BioValley Malaysia.
This will bring together efforts now carried out separately by universities, government agencies and the private sector.
The government plans to pump in RM2 billion (S$937,000) to form three research institutes in BioValley under the country's 2001-2005 development plan.
The 484 ha BioValley
will be within the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), just south of the capital.
The Biotechnology Coordinating Council overseeing the project is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, one of its main promoters.
No specific incentives were announced to attract foreign firms.
But the plans aim to pull in some 150 new biotech firms along with 30,000 jobs within eight to 10 years and attract between US$10.5 to US$12.2 billion in investments, officials say.
Showing its keen ambition, a local firm, Stem Life Sdn Bhd, has already delved into stem-cell research, an area that has drawn controversy due to worries that scientists were 'playing God'.
Malaysia's conservative Muslim society could make research into stem cells an even more sensitive issue, but Dr Mahathir said an ethics committee and enforcement agency are being formed to ensure things would not get out of hand.
'It is fine to produce specific organs for transplanting in human bodies but we should not try to play God and think of populating this earth with creatures which may destroy us in the end,' he said.
In an interview with the New Straits Times, Dr Mahathir addressed the potential Muslim backlash over stem-cell research.
'In Islam, if something is life-saving, the fact that it is derived from sources which are not considered as clean does not matter.
'Islam is very flexible on this, but of course there are Muslims who refuse to accept the teachings of Islam on this matter. They want to be rigid, to prove how strong their adherence to the religion is,' he said.




BERSAMBUNG di Bah. 3/3.
PROJEK MEGA YANG BERJAYA... Harapan masa depan

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