Good morning Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Mr Lim Hock Chuan, members of the press, staff of IDA, MDA and Eng Wah Organization present, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to extend a very warm welcome to all to Eng Wah Suntec City, especially to the members of the media present at today's press conference.

Today, IDA, MDA and Eng Wah Organization are proud to announce the deployment of 21 digital screens at Eng Wah Cinemas and The Legends Fort Canning Park over the next year. This is an important groundbreaking event that will further establish Singapore's position on the global infocomm and media industry map.

I would like to begin by expressing Eng Wah Organization's gratitude and pride for being supported by IDA and MDA on the pilot deployment of 21 digital screens as part of their forward-looking Digital Cinema industry development plans. The adoption of digital cinema will enable all players in the cinema business value-chain to reap many business benefits in the highly competitive movie exhibition and distribution industry.

Our aim to innovate and continue using the latest technology available in the world for our cinemas, thus ties in strategically with IDA's goal to make Singapore a full-fledged digital media hub.

As a leading movie distributor and exhibitor, we have seen the importance of the early adoption of cutting-edge technology to our business strategy. We have thus made creative use of the Internet and SMS in our business, and in the near future we will be 3G ready as well. To this end, Eng Wah Organization will deploy the state-of-the art DSR™ Cineplex Central Server at its cinemas as part of this Digital Cinema initiative. This is an intelligent cinema management operating system comprising digital projectors and servers featuring the world's first real-time scheduling of any movie from a jukebox of digitally stored movies. This world's first will enable Eng Wah to operate on a Movie-on-Demand basis - to schedule any movies to playback on any screen to maximize revenue from all categories of movies.

This is the first full 2K-enabled digital cinema system to be commercially deployed outside the US. Our 2K digital cinema system is sourced from Barco of Belgium, the world's leading solutions provider of digital imaging systems and GDC Technology, a pioneer in digital post-production, delivery and presentation technologies. We are indeed proud of the achievement so far and have full confidence in this partnership.

We are also proud to announce that the Singapore Gala Premier of Walt Disney Pictures' "Brother Bear" organised by Buena Vista International will be a digital release to be screened at Eng Wah Suntec Cineplex at 9.00pm on Thursday, 27 November 2003. This will be the first full 2K-enabled digital movie to be commercially screened in the world and it will indeed be a significant milestone in cinema history.

We will also not confine the use of digital cinema technology to our cinemas alone. To further inject vibrancy to the leisure and entertainment scene here, one of the digital cinema systems will be deployed at The Legends Fort Canning Park, our new town club in the park, to screen live concerts, sporting, cultural events and other alternate content beamed to us via satellite. Audiences can then enjoy such screenings in a fun carnival atmosphere in the company of family and friends, to wine and dine in a park setting.

The immense possibilities and benefits of Digital Cinema are just beginning to be exploited. Digital cinema represents a convergent technology solution involving software, projection technology, compression, digital data storage and transmission. Digital cinema will allow new ways to transport, store and present digital sound and pictures to viewers.

With the systems integration of a number of technologies, digital cinema offers some real advantages and savings. For cinema audiences, going to the movies will be even more enjoyable with pristine digital images and sounds with every screening; image and sound distortion from film scratches, dirt and burns will be things of the past. Also, popular movies will be able to be screened on more screens and with higher frequency. This will give cinema-goers more opportunities to watch movies of their choice.

From the cinema industry point-of-view, the following are just the few out of the many benefits that I wish to highlight:

" It costs approximately US$2,500.00 to US$3,000.00* (read two thousand five hundred to three thousand US dollars) to make a print of the original film for distribution to a theatre, and an additional US$300.00 to US$500.00* per copy in shipping costs. This totals roughly the US$1.2 billion* that the movie industry in the US spends on print duplication and shipping costs alone. That figure can be cut by at least 50 percent with the simultaneous transmission via satellite of a first release movie. (* Figures from National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, Digital Cinema 2001 Conference)

" Digital projection, transmission and the production of digital content will be new drivers of economic growth; it will give rise to new and niche business opportunities in the infocomm and media landscape.

" The digital copy of a movie is as good on the 500th showing as the first showing, while film degrades with each passing through the projector.

" Intellectual Property protection, security and digital rights management will become better and more cost-effectively managed.

Our partners here today will also touch on more examples of benefits that Digital Cinema will bring to the industry and the entertainment scene.

There is more good news to come. The recent announcement by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a joint venture of Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Brothers Studios, in the US last week will indeed give the adoption of Digital Cinema a boost.

The announcement of the release of DCI Technical Specifications Version 3.0 is an important step toward a common standard that can be embraced by all studios. This is because a common industry-wide specification for digital cinema is crucial for an open architecture that ensures a high level of technical performance, reliability and quality control.

Eng Wah Organization deeply appreciates the initiatives being put in place and the talents that are developed to put Singapore on the global media industries' map, even as competition from the region grows. As the 19th Century American author, poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbour, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

The steadfast support given by IDA and MDA are thus invaluable to all media industry players in Singapore to explore and to create new business opportunities, both within Singapore and beyond. We wish IDA and MDA all the best in making Digital Cinema a truly successful initiative for the media industry here.

Thank you.

- Press Release: IDA and The MDA Jointly Develop Singapore's Digital Cinema Industry (19 November 2003)
- Speech by Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
- Speech by Mr Lim Hock Chuan, Chief Executive Officer, Media Development Authority of Singapore