Singapore's leadingexhibitor Golden Village is set to build the country's largest entertainmentmultiplex occupying 90,000 sq feet with 15 screens and about 2,500 seats.

GV Harbourfront, which costs$590,000 (S$1m) per screen, is located in VivoCity shopping mall, previouslyknown as HarbourFront Mall, and due to open in late 2006. It will be GoldenVillage's new flagship, featuring Asia's widest 35 mm indoor cinema screen at28m and luxurious Gold Class cinemas.

Golden Village, a jointventure between Hong Kong's Golden Harvest and Australia's Village Roadshow,was the first to bring the multiplex mentality to Singapore when it opened a10-screener in 1992. It currently commands a 46% market share from its 58screens in eight locations.

Meanwhile, Malaysia'slargest exhibitor Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC), in which Golden Harvest also hasa stake, is investing $21m (RM80m) for the launch of four new multiplexeswithin the next three years, including the $4.7m 12-screener opened in Penangin June - Malaysia's first multiplex opening since 1999.

Two of the new cinemas willbe located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur: a nine-screener with about 1,500 seatswill open its doors at Berjaya Times Square in December while another will bebuilt at the Pavilion shopping mall for a 2006 opening.

Scheduled to open in 2005,the fourth multiplex is being built at phase two of 1 Utama where Malaysia'ssecond largest exhibitor Tanjong Golden Village has been operating sevenscreens at phase one since 1995.

Malaysia has a total of 223screens at 67 sites of which multiplexes take up 161 screens and 29 sites.