MDA's move to its new home this month helps it to play an even bigger role in growing Singapore's media industry to become a global player over the next decade. It also consolidates in one place its offices from four different locations previously - MICA building, The Adelphi, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) Centre and Novena Square.

MDA's 300 staff will be housed together in Fusionopolis Phase 1, a two-tower cum podium complex. MDA will occupy three floors located in one of the towers, Symbiosis.

MDA's Singapore Media Fusion (SMF) Centre will occupy Level 11 and it will provide a physical environment that brings together a community of local and international content creators, buyers, financiers and governments through partnerships and collaborations. It also will also showcase the works of the local media in Singapore while enabling interactive digital media technologies.

The authority will also offer 'one stop service' to its customers, says its chief executive officer, Dr Christopher Chia.

For instance, businesses and households can now apply for licences at one central location instead of having to go to the URA Centre at Maxwell Road and Novena Square respectively. About 5,000 people visit the two MDA offices at these two locations every month.

With room to grow in the new and spacious building, the MDA can expand its operations to play its catalytic role in developing the media here.

A key part of MDA's long-term vision is to grow the Interactive and Digital Media (IDM) research and development sector alongside its efforts to find new opportunities for traditional media, which needs to develop new business models, content, tools and services to keep pace with accelerating digitisation, says Dr Chia.

Thus, the MDA's move to Fusionopolis marks the beginning of an alignment with Fusionopolis' objectives to put Singapore on the international media radar screen as a leading hub for R&D in infocomms and digital media, besides the physical sciences and engineering.

Interestingly, the media businesses and institutes moving into Fusionopolis include Asian Food channel, EON Reality, Ubisoft Singapore and the Digipen Institute of Technology, which currently offers degree courses tailored for the video games industry. Digipen's campus in Fusionpolis is the institute's first and the only one outside the United States.

Fusionopolis is going to be the central place for digital media, with enough critical mass to generate innovation as a result of its focus on R&D.

Already, the media industry is witnessing an accelerating pace of digitisation which is affecting the traditional revenue streams. So there is increasing pressure to constantly re-invent and innovate the existing services and delivery models. This is where R&D plays a critical role.

Dr Chia says the MDA wants the media industry players to benefit from the research in Interactive and Digital Media.

He says: 'Let me give you an example of the strong linkage that we draw. Singapore and MIT established a game lab called GAMBIT, to conduct fundamental research to address important challenges faced by the global digital game research community and industry to contribute towards the development of next generation games.

'The core focus is to identify and solve research problems using a multi-disciplinary approach that can be implemented and applied by Singapore's digital game industry.'

Dr Chia stressed that the MDA is interested in R&D in the tools, applications and services related to any form of digital media as it seeks to cultivate an R&D culture here among its four key stakeholders - individuals, industry, schools and research institutes.

The overall objective is to ensure that a comprehensive media ecosystem comprising funding schemes, co-production initiatives, assistance in location services and international marketing efforts, are in place, he adds.

MDA's efforts would be geared towards Media 21's objective of growing a vibrant media industry by internationalising made-in-Singapore content for a global audience across multiple platforms.

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