IT Ministry To Establish 'Center Of Excellence' For Animation Industry's Uplift

ISLAMABAD, Nov 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Nov, 2021 ) :Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication will establish a Center of Excellence (CoE), in collaboration the University of Karachi at an estimated cost of Rs two billion, aimed at promotion the animation industry and capacity building of professionals.

The center, being set up in the building of Sheikh Zayed Institute on University Road, was spanned over 28,000 square feet and it would be larger than any incubation center in Pakistan and unique in terms of facilities, official sources told APP.

They said rupees one billion would be spent on provision of equipment and facilities while rupees one billion on account of five-year expenditures.

"We aim to empower our youth to take a larger chunk off the current global animation market of about US $ 370 billion," they said.

They said, "We must tell the world that our youth is at par with the world in adapting to this creativity and will take their due share from the current global market of US $ 370 billion." The officials said an agreement had already been signed with Ignite to set up the CoE, which would house a vertical incubator, training facility, production studio and co-working space for promotion of animation, VFX and game development across the country. "The center is expected to start operations in a record time of 6 to 8 months." They said the estimated size of the global animation industry was about US $ 370 billion and was expected to double by the year 2030 to US $ 642 billion, emphasizing to match pace with this fast-paced technology domain.

The sources said Pakistan had a huge potential and could be one of the key regional players in gaming, animation and multimedia industry through training, mentorship and skill development of youth and "by facilitating gaming and animations startups through incubation/acceleration programs to transform them into successful and sustainable businesses reaching an industry-revenue of billions of Dollars." "The CoE will bring a paradigm shift in reviving up research and innovation in Gaming, VFX (visual effects), Computer Vision and AI through a robust ecosystem in collaboration with tech partners, industry, investors, industry associations and government, and will bolster indigenous product development while propelling the growth of tech entrepreneurship in the country" the said.

Vice Chancellor Karachi University, Dr Khalid Iraqi said this strategic triangle was going to be formed which triggered a meaningful collaboration among academia, industry and government.

In the developed industrialized world, he said universities were deemed as an engine of growth in knowledge-driven economies.

He assured the proposed CoE on Animation would be completely supported by all hardware and software expertise available at Karachi University and its faculty and students would also be benefited by this joint venture.