KUALA LUMPUR: The Digital Silk Road initiative, which integrates digital technology into culture, tourism and industrial cooperation to shape a 'digital culture industry' that can further facilitate exchange of culture, technology and business opportunities between China and Malaysia, targeting the internet-savvy generation.
The 2020 Malaysia-China Year of Culture and Tourism - Digital Silk Road campaign which was cloud-launched by China Culture & Entertainment Industry Association (CCEA), is one such effort to bolster communication and cooperation between especially the young people of China and Malaysia.
The campaign, organised by CCEA that ran from 24 September to 30 September 2020, featured Malaysia-China Digital Silk Road Forum, Malaysia-China Digital Culture & Tourism Forum, Malaysia-China Young Industry Talent Cloud Grouping, Malaysia-China Silk Road Culture & Tourism Electronic Sports Championship featuring overseas King Pro League Global Tour (KPLGT).
The cloud forum, hosted by CCEA secretary-general Kong Ming, featured 5 experts from China and Malaysia who shared their insightful views on a number of topics concerning 'digital culture' through interactive sessions with the young audience.
"Malaysia is embracing 5G, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other emerging digital technologies to boost the digital culture industry, driven by culture and tourism, which is redefining itself through the power of the internet," Ambassador of China to Malaysia Bai Tian said during his keynote address.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, 16 typical business entities belonging to the digital culture industry recorded RMB523.6 billion (approximately RM319.5 billion) in annual revenues with a growth rate of 15.5 per cent.
It goes to show that digital economy boasts an unlimited potential that transcends borders.
"I strongly support such initiatives that provide the young people an aspiring platform to contribute their ideas and talents to the economy and the benefit of both nations," Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia Dato' Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri said.
"I am optimistic that such initiatives would help enhance the Malaysia-China cooperation and friendship, moving forward." she said.
CCEA president Liu Jinhua said by riding on the rich cultural tourism resources of both countries, the integration between culture and tourism, together with traditional industries, through digitalisation, is creating new business opportunities to take the economy to the next level.
Higher Education deputy minister Datuk Dr Mansor Othman believes that young people are the backbone of digital culture industry, which offers plenty of promising careers, driven by the powerful digital technology.
Relatively, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) chief operating officer Ng Wan Peng pointed out that the global digital content market presents a huge potential and the growth of digital content development is gaining prominence in Malaysia.
"In terms of talent cultivation, Malaysia has set up a creativity and innovation development hub to nurture young talents in the field of animation and new media.
"Malaysia and China will be working together to bring forth more intellectual properties through industrial collaboration," she said, highlighting the bright prospects of e-commerce, Industry 4.0, Automation and Artificial Intelligence.
China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) professor and doctoral supervisor Wang Zhong brought the audience to a self-evident thought - the world is going through an unprecedented reform where industrial civilization is being transformed into intelligent civilization and where development is growing exponentially.
"The Malaysia-China Digital Culture Tourism Industry Forum breaks the confines of time and space to pave the way for more like-minded communications in the future.
"And culture is one the biggest assets of any country or city. Competitiveness built on cultural advantages is the most central, fundamental and long-lasting aspect of nation development including its people," he said.
Taihe Institute vice chairman and vice president of Perfect World Yi Di said human beings are being driven by digitalization into a new world of 'internet of everything' where creative thinking revolving around smart technology will speed up new market expansion culture tourism.
In echoing his views, Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) director of mobile eSports and president of King Pro League (KPL) Zhang Yijia said the uptrend in electronic sports (eSports) globally has helped establish connections among the young people across different countries where online social interaction through digital products such as games, animation and digital literature shapes the way we interact, behave, think and do things.
FEG Esports chief executive officer Chen Qidong believes that the Digital Silk Road initiative will help create more cooperation opportunities for enterprises of the two countries while bridging communication gap between them.
On a concluding note, moderator Kong Ming said the 2nd Digital Silk Road programme brings together experts in the field of literature, music, animation, eSports and other digital domains who are working towards realising a shared vision, beyond borders and cultures.