Govt to set up Animation Centre of Excellence

Allocates Rs2b for project that will be completed in 6-8 months

KARACHI:

The establishment of ‘Animation Centre of Excellence’ is essential as the world has a big animation market while Pakistan has no significant share in it, said Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque.

At a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between Ignite and the University of Karachi on Saturday, the minister emphasised that the centre of excellence would benefit students of different universities including Karachi University.

“We want to start work on it immediately,” he said, adding that Rs2 billion had been allocated for the project, of which Rs1 billion would be released immediately. “The animation centre will be completed within six to eight months.”

Around Rs31 billion had been spent on connectivity “as we want to connect the whole country to the internet service”, the minister said.

Around 100 million people were using broadband services and 180 million were using mobile phones, he said, pointing out that new mobile phones were also being manufactured in Pakistan. “Smartphone for everyone is our vision.”

He said “We want everything to be digitised; even parliament is going to be digitised.”

IT exports have increased by 57% this year, the minister said, adding that 5G would be launched by December 2022.

Discussing Karachi issues, he said that the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had taken up the K4 project to resolve the water shortage problem in the metropolis and the project would be completed in two years.

The transportation problem was also being solved, as the Green Line project would kick off in November this year.

“A 911 helpline will be launched soon to facilitate citizens across the country,” the minister said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2021.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.