KUCHING: The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) will assist the music industry in the next six months as part of its initiative to recover the economy in the creative industry.

“The element of music is important in the film industry because if a film lacks music, then surely it will be less interesting because music is one of the main components.

“Therefore, it is relevant for Finas to focus on that area,” said Finas chief executive officer Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri.

He was speaking during a dialogue with creative industry players at Finas Sarawak here yesterday.

He said during the movement control order (MCO), Finas decided that instead of focusing on just films, they would now also focus on music as both were in the creative industry.

According to him, the board had approved for Finas to form a committee specialising in music, with committee members comprising individuals involved in the local music industry.

“Once the committee is confirmed, we will look again at what packages we can offer to help them. I believe that Finas has enough funds but before this, music was not under our jurisdiction, so we could not supply the funds towards the music industry,” he said.

Idham added, “We have future plans for the music industry, but for now we mainly want to focus on helping them in this coming six months first.”

Also present were Finas chairman Zakaria Abdul Hamid, deputy chairman Datuk Norman Abdul Halim and board member Datuk Norhyati Mohd Ismail.