Talent, culture and IP: spotlighting Sarawak’s creative economy

Malaysia's creative economy is growing as a pillar of the country's digital economy strategy, supporting more than 11,000 high-value jobs nationwide. 

This was on display at the Borneo Animation & Games Festival (BAGFEST) 2026, held in Kuching, Sarawak, from August 19 to 23, where federal and state representatives joined creative professionals, studio founders, and industry leaders in a series of panel sessions and presentations on building a competitive, sustainable, and creative digital economy.

The conversations offered a working-level view of the sector's gaps and opportunities, from talent development and intellectual property (IP) ownership to the commercial viability of local, culturally- rooted content. 

Sarawak's cultural assets emerged as a recurring theme, seen as a resource for IP creation and for positioning the state as a regional hub for the creative industry. 

The event was organised by Malaysia's Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), in partnership with Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) and the Sarawak Government, featuring panel sessions, networking opportunities, workshops, and exhibitions. 

Building the local ecosystem 

Sarawakian creative companies shared about the state of the local digital creative ecosystem in the panel session titled “Creative Currency: Trade Your Talents in Multiple Industries”.  

The speakers, who each entered the creative industry from different professional backgrounds, pointed to multidisciplinary skillsets as key to working across the sector’s diverse roles. 

Freelance concept artist Ika Sulastri Mohammad Dahlan Donald shared that when she transitioned from architecture to concept art, she noted a lack of established companies in animation and games locally. 

“From the point of view of fresh graduates, it could be a steep climb for them if they’re looking for those opportunities here in Sarawak,” she noted. 

This opened the floor for a discussion on how to better take advantage of the talents that exist locally. 

Stinablis CEO and founder, Jacob Anak Jim, who moved from aerospace engineering into digital manufacturing before entering the creative industry, said government support has expanded in recent years.  

“In the past, media was just television and movies, but now it’s including arts and games, so there’s room for more growth,” he said, pointing to national agencies like MDEC as drivers of this support. 

At the panel, Jacob added that closer communication between the creative industry and universities was essential to align academic syllabi with industry needs, and to help prevent local talents from leaving the state.  

“We need to talk to educational bodies so that we can express what we need. Ask if they can work with students to learn a specific software, understand what it is being taught,” he said. 

Alongside fostering industry-academia communication, developing the creative workforce locally was one of the key elements to ensure the strength and resilience of the industry, with talents that are equipped with relevant and diverse skillsets. 

He added that skills developed in the creative industry often transfer to other fields, making experience gained on any project worthwhile: "If your creative skills can also be adopted into other industries, purposes, and experiences, that is valuable." 

Culture as competitive advantage 

Sarawak's folklore and stories were repeatedly raised at BAGFEST as untapped material for original IP, echoing Premier Abang Zohari's remarks on turning local culture, heritage and biodiversity into global IP. 

Jacob said much of this material remains undocumented. "We need to document and digitalise more of our art assets. We have a lot of lore and fairy tales from the natives and the general community that is not stored digitally, so a lot of those assets cannot be worked on."  

Dances, poetry, and music, he said, are still passed on manually, leaving the games and animation sector without reference material to draw from. He described this as both a gap and an opportunity: once digitised, these cultural assets could become IP for use across creative projects.  

This topic was further explored in the panel session “From Borneo to the World: Telling global stories with local roots” where industry professionals discussed the integration of Bornean culture into global media.  

Ventura Interactive’s CEO and founder, Andrew Bong, noted showcasing Bornean identity required real and relevant local elements. 

As an audio expert, he shared that his productions tend to include Sarawakian culture through live audio recording of traditional instruments to build an “authentic sonic world”.  

This authenticity was the key behind succeeding not just locally but beyond borders as well, he added.  

From the games industry, Bear Down Studios’ Founder and Studio Head, Johnson Ting, added that starting with broader themes can help before zooming into “hyper-specific” local designs to ensure wider appeal. 

In his work designing pre-production assets, he pitched Southeast Asian inspired designs to international clients, designing backgrounds and character skins that involve traditional patterns and terabai—warrior shields historically used by the Iban Dayak people of Borneo for defence.

Though the design has not yet been approved for final production, he said that pitching such ideas was a step toward promoting local culture to the internationally, and encouraged the audience to do the same, given how little of the region’s traditions currently appear in international media. 

Panelists agreed that the sector's gaps stem less from a shortage of talent than from limited exposure and experience.

Rashid emphasised that the support of national agencies was critical to close this gap, sharing about the grant that his Sarawak-based company received from MDEC to do a virtual production shoot. 

MDEC has been rolling out initiatives like the Digital Content Grant to support the creation, development and commercialisation of original content in Malaysia, looking to empower local IPs in animation and digital games. 

With the grant, Rashid's team produced a five-minute trailer combining live action and virtual production, working with animators to depict Sarawak with as much accuracy as possible. The trailer increased exposure for the studio's work, and the team now hopes to develop it into a feature-length production. 

Across the sessions, the throughline was consistent: Sarawak has the talent and cultural material to compete beyond its borders, but needs stronger links between industry, education, and government to do so at scale.  

Continued support from agencies such as MDEC and SDEC, panellists suggested, would be key to determine how much of that potential becomes original, locally owned IP.