Cultural Industries Fund granted MOP143 million

Davina Chu

The Cultural Industries Fund (FIC) has granted a total of MOP143.35 million from its foundation in April 2014 to the end of 2016, the committee member of the FIC, Davina Chu, stated yesterday during a meeting with the press.

The majority of these funds were granted to commercial projects (over MOP92 million) and a total of over MOP51 million has been dedicated to service platforms.

According to the figures presented by the FIC, such investment from the Macau government represents only a small percentage on the total sum of investments made by the entrepreneurs. As stated by the fund, the governmental support is accountable for only about 13 percent of the MOP726 million total investment in the same period.

Doing an evaluation of the first 33 months of operations of the FIC, Chu noted some relevant changes that have been made over the years concerning forms of financial support. Chu noted that “in the first year the financial support form was concentrated on the payment of projects, which is a non-repayable support, but in the last two years the companies started to use the form of free-interest loans or a mix between the two, which is allowed.”

Changes also included the approval rate of the projects submitted to the fund that saw a significant increase since 2016 and especially in the first two months of 2017, when the approval rate reached over 80 percent.

“From 2014 to 2016 the approval rate was lower than 40 percent but in the last two months [January and February 2017] this approval rate has hiked to over 80 percent [this] shows that the candidate companies are now more aware of how to apply for the finance support and how to do their business plans,” Chu said, justifying the figures.

The FIC committee members are hoping that 2017 can be a year of great achievements for the fund. In just the first two months of 2017, the fund has already received 16 new projects, 13 of which have been already approved, a figure close to the total of 2016 (20).

Digital media in the areas of Filming, Animation and Comics is the field that had more projects approved, followed closely by the Creative Design and Fashion Design. The total amount of finances granted in 2017 for projects already approved was MOP18 million.

Chu remarked that the ultimate goal of the fund is to “create and promote the Macau brand” not only locally but abroad. This promotion, according to the committee member, is already happening with some brands (namely in fashion design) being awarded with prizes by the “Hong Kong Designers Association Global Design Awards” and the “Red Star Award,” a prestige award from China’s Industrial Design. In addition, one participating company, specializing in cartoon books, retails in Macau, Hong Kong and across China.

A new “incentive” is expected in 2017 with the creation of a “Cultural Industries Awards” scheme. For now, the award presentation for the best of the industry is still “in study” but Davina Chu advanced a reply to journalists’ questions saying, “it might pass for two different systems: one that delivers honors and another that included prize money.”

The press conference was attended by subsidy grantees who could share “successful stories.” They shared both their achievements as well as the ways that established companies can help people entering business to kick off their own projects within the cultural industries field.