Malaysia gave a sneak preview Friday of its first three-dimensional animation series it hopes will help it penetrate the global animation market and give fresh impetus to its ambitious high-tech Multimedia Super Corridor program now in its 10th year.
     The government-backed 13-episode made-for-television series based on the life of Saladdin, the 12th century Islamic ruler of Egypt who successfully fought Christian crusaders, is being promoted as the ''CV'' of the Malaysian creative industry.
     An invited audience, including Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was shown an eight-minute trailer of the cartoon that is one of the projects by the Multimedia Development Corp., the overseer of Malaysia's information technology hub.
     The Multimedia Super Corridor, a 750 square kilometer strip of land stretching from the landmark Petronas Twin Towers to Cyberjaya, a fully-wired smart city near Kuala Lumpur International Airport, is often touted as Malaysia's Silicon Valley.
     It was then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's grand vision, launched in 1996 to leapfrog the country from an agro-industrial economy straight into the information age.
     Ten years on, the report card is mixed.
     Proponents point to the fact that in a decade, the number of IT companies has jumped from fewer than 300 to more than 3,400, 1,447 of them in the MSC zone.
     They include multinationals such as Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Swedish telecommunication giant Ericsson and British banking group HSBC that were lured by various incentives such as tax breaks, 100 percent foreign equity ownership and greater freedom to hire expatriates.
     In 2004, Multimedia Development reported the companies in the MSC zone have attained revenue of 7.21 billion ringgit ($1.96 billion) with export of information and communication technology products and services reaching 1.57 billion ringgit.
     The MSC project has also helped place Malaysia as the third most attractive location for outsourcing, behind India and China, according to the U.S. consultancy firm A.T. Kearney.
     The government now hopes to replicate the MSC throughout the country.
     But the MSC has also its fair share of failures, including the 790 million ringgit Entertainment Village.
     The ''E-Village'' was to have been a one-stop film and entertainment center with, among others, a virtual studio, eight soundstages, production houses, post-production and multimedia facilities, a theme park and shopping complexes.
     But since its launch in 1999, the project has been mired in debts and lawsuits and has gone nowhere.
     There is the question of availability of knowledge workers that are key to the success of the MSC.
     There is also stiff competition from neighbors such as Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand who also have IT hubs.
     Abdullah is mindful of these issues.
     ''We are never short of ideas, but we are short of implementation,'' he said in a speech to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the MSC.
     ''Somewhere along the way, others have overtaken us. We seem to have lost the staying power. (But) failure is not an option. We must succeed,'' he said. ''It is time the MSC is injected with a new spirit.''
     In the next five years, the government has identified the creative multimedia content industry that involves computer animation, digital games, mobile services and applications, interactive television, ''edu-tainment,'' digital publishing and digital archiving as the new sources of growth.
     ''By 2009, the global digital content industry is estimated to be worth $644 billion. Therefore, this industry has good potential to be developed in Malaysia,'' Abdullah said.
     Malaysia, he added, has the talent.
     There are now more than 100 companies involved in the creative multimedia content industry and by 2010 the government targets the number to grow to 525, creating some 17,000 jobs and generating export revenue of 1.1 billion ringgit
     ''Many may not know this, but some of the big and well-known firms such as Disney, Sony, Nintendo, Channel V and several Hollywood studios are outsourcing part of their work to our local companies,'' he said.
     But it was seen as a blow when George Lucas of ''Star Wars'' fame decided to open his animation studio in Singapore last year.
     Malaysia now hopes ''Saladdin'' will help launch its locally trained animators onto the world stage and attract major companies to set up shop in the country.
     It will promote the trailers at international film festivals to test the market.
     ''It's a showcase. It's about opening door. I want Miramax, Disney to come here,'' said Kamil Othman, vice president of the creative multimedia department at Multimedia Development.
     Adding local demand for creative content is limited, he said the need is very much to look towards the global market to generate more employment opportunities.
     ''There are some 2,000 graduates every year (in creative content development). If there is no work for them, they will run away and work for Lucasfilm in Singapore,'' Kamil warned.
     ''Saladdin'' is scheduled to debut in two years, with the nearly 10 million ringgit project being privatized to local firms.
     It will involve not only the production of the animated series, but also marketing and merchandise tie-ins such as video games and comics.
==Kyodo