The Ministry of IT and Telecom has decided to establish the Center of Excellence for Gaming and Animation (CEGA) in Karachi and Lahore.
Ignite National Technology Fund has sought expressions of interest from companies for setting up the Center of Excellence for Gaming and Animation (CEGA).
According to a document available with ProPakistani, the locations of the Centers will be NED University of Engineering and Technology Karachi and National Aerospace Science and Technology Park (NASTP) Lahore. The area for the center at NED UET is 11,000 square feet approximately and at NASTP Lahore is 14,500 square feet approximately.
The training center, co-working space, and incubation center will be established at each CEGA in Lahore and Karachi. State-of-the-art training centers with 50 workstations for students will be established in both Karachi and Lahore where instructor-led physical and virtual training facilities will be provided.
The co-working or community space for freelancers, entrepreneurs individuals, etc. will be set up at each CEGA. The community space will also have meeting rooms, and a common area with a seating facility of 100 persons at each center. Incubation centers will induct 40 gaming/animation startups (20 in Karachi and 20 in Lahore) per year.
According to Ignite, the gaming and animation industry has seen tremendous growth owing to the availability of the Internet, satellite TV, mobile devices, social media, and a growing demand for entertainment, gaming, animation movies, and visual effects.
The current market size of gaming and animation is more than USD 500 Billion and it is expected to see exponential growth in the coming years.
According to Ignite, the Pakistani gaming industry earned USD 170 million in revenue last year, with more than 8,000 professionals associated with the gaming and animation industry. Pakistan has 195 million mobile subscribers out of which 119 million have 3G/4G services. Pakistan generates more than 30,000 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) graduates each year.
More than 60 percent of the population of Pakistan is under the age of 30 years. Moreover, Pakistan has the third largest English-speaking population in the world. All of these statistics present a very lucrative use case for gaming and animation in Pakistan.
The National Technology Fund opines that Pakistan has great potential to meet both the demand as well as the supply side of the gaming and amination industry. Game development is a high-budget business whereas animation needs a mastery of skills. In Pakistan, currently, there is no vertical incubator or Centre of Excellence in gaming and animation.
According to Ignite, to address the needs of the skillset required for gaming and animation, Ignite National Technology Fund has stepped into this segment and has planned to launch a Center of Excellence exclusively for Gaming and Animation (CEGA).
CEGA will not only provide a platform for the people of Pakistan to come forward, learn, and enhance their gaming and animation skills but also will aid the national economy to capture the market share in the billion-dollar worldwide gaming and animation industry.
The aim of this program is to make Pakistan one of the key regional players in the gaming, animation, and multimedia industry by providing proper equipment, co-working facilities, and training over a period of five (5) years.
