The agreement was signed by Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) chairman Dr Tan Chin Nam who is also Singapore's Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and Philippines Office of the Press Secretary's Ignacio R. Bunye. The signing took place on the sidelines of the Asia Media Festival (AMF) 2007, the region’s premier media content market hosted by MDA.

The media co-operation MoU comes at a time when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries are forging closer economic, political and community ties. Earlier this month, the region witnessed the launch of the Asean Media Portal (www.aseanmedia.net), an online platform that showcases and facilitates the exchange of cultural information and media content among member states. Other than the Philippines, Singapore has also sealed media co-operation MoUs with three other Asean countries, namely Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand.

Dr Tan says, "The world is witnessing an unprecedented interest in Asian culture and media content. There is thus great potential and promise for Asean nations to leverage our collective culture capital for the regional and global markets. We are therefore delighted to strengthen ties with the Philippines through this MOU, which will generate new growth opportunities for our media enterprises to work with their Philippines counterparts and jointly develop compelling content and services for the world market“.

“With the signing of the MOU between the Philippines and Singapore, we hope to further broaden through the media our understanding of the workings of these two countries. This is consistent with our continued efforts of building bridges to peoples and nations,” said Press Secretary Bunye.

A number of companies from both countries have indicated interest to collaborate in the areas of TV, film, games and animation. Recently, Singapore’s game studio Boomzap and Manila-based studio Flipside Games successfully launched a PC-based casual game Hoyle's Enchanted Puzzles. The game is published by United States’ Encore, Inc and is slated for digital and retail distribution in the United States and worldwide.

More collaborations are believed to be in the pipeline as industry players converge in Singapore for the AMF. The Philippines’ Creative Media and Film Society led by Imee Marcos, will be participating in the AMF Country Showcase on 29 November, a one-day networking platform hosted by MDA. It is aimed at facilitating financing and co-production opportunities between Singapore and visiting country delegations.