(SINGAPORE) It is supposed to be one of the pillars of Singapore's future economy, but its foundations appear somewhat wobbly at the moment. Reason: While the government is willing to splash resources on developing the next local Mark Zuckerberg, the aspiring technopreneurs here don't seem ready to step up to the plate.

Back in 2006, the National Research Foundation identified the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) industry as one of five 'pillars' of Singapore's future economy, estimating that it would contribute $10 billion in value-add to the Singapore economy by 2015. The government said it would pump in $500 million to achieve this.

Since then, a microfunding scheme worth $40 million has been put in place to grow young IDM start-ups and connect them with mentors who helped to administer a $50,000 grant on behalf of the Media Development Authority (MDA).

A year since the scheme took off, approximately 60 proposals have been approved. This means that the total amount committed so far is about $3 million - not because the mentors have been stingy, but because the proposals have been poor. 'I remember one guy coming to me with a proposal to create an umbrella-vending machine,' said Azione Capital executive director Nicolas Chan. But how did that qualify as a digital media project? Simply because the man wanted to attach a television screen to the umbrella dispenser.

'He thought that the screen made it an IDM venture and wanted the grant,' recalled Mr Chan. His Azione Capital, one of 10 MDA-appointed 'incubators', has approved only seven start-ups for MDA microfunding since August last year, out of the 90 applications it received. Mr Chan says that 'nine-in-ten' applicants do not have a good idea of what they want the money for.

'Many of them lack the X-factor, or they have very local-centric plans.' - Jeffery Chi, executive director of venture capitalist firm Vickers Financial Group

Similarly, NTU Ventures has seen more than 60 applicants for MDA microfunding since October last year, but selected only seven. 'Some (of the proposals) were projects related to engineering, or retailing, not IDM. More needs to be done to help them to understand the nature and requirements of the IDM space,' said a spokesman who declined to be named.

He cited continuity as a major problem that even successful applicants face. 'Yes, you give them $50,000. What's next? At the end of the day, angel investors and VCs view the companies as relatively high-risk investments, while it is difficult to get MNCs and SMEs to become early adopters of these technologies.'

None of the seven NTU Ventures projects have attracted follow-on funding from investors.

Over at Thymos Capital, an incubator located at the National University of Singapore, Associate Professor Gwendolyn Tan feels that the onus of coming up with a workable business proposal is clearly on the shoulders of the applicants.

'Those who want to start something should be proactive, rather than blindly going into something because it's cool ... the onus is on the individual, not the government,' she pointed out.

Executive director of venture capitalist firm Vickers Financial Group, Jeffery Chi, has received 20 IDM proposals over the past year, but has not approved funding for even one.

'Many of them lack the X-factor, or they have very local-centric plans,' he noted, adding that he had just finalised a deal for a Chinese website with 12 million subscribers which 'only began to attract advertisers' when it hit six million users.

Such feedback validates the concerns raised earlier this month by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam that the IDM industry has not quite taken off.

Yet, the small number of projects that are being funded is a positive sign, according to the executive director of the multi-agency IDM Programme Office, Michael Yap. 'We are on track. The results are more or less what we expected,' said Mr Yap, who is also the MDA's deputy chief executive officer. 'We are chasing quality, we are not chasing quantity ... I'll be more concerned if we don't have enough people proposing.' He also pointed out that the 10 incubators are on the lookout for different things.

Adeline Tan from Athena Innobator, a joint incubator between Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Nanyang Polytechnic and Singapore Management University, said: 'We are looking out for innovative concepts more than profitability and sustainability. The latter can come later when the project bears fruit.'

Kenneth Li, managing director of FrontEdge Capital, the VC behind Fresbo World, a virtual world embedded in social networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster, noted that the business direction of a plan is secondary to the technical talent, resilience and enthusiasm of the team, and openness to ideas.

'It's our role to help them think strategically and nudge them in the right direction,' he said. 'They just need to have the technical and personal potential to go there.'

Ultimately, according to Mr Yap, it is when projects are brought to the industry for follow-on funding that we will see the major 'culling'.

So far, only six out of the 60 projects that were awarded the grant - just 10 per cent - have gone on to get a second round of private funding, though many of the 60 projects were only initiated late last year.