Export to reach $300m in next five years
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Mehdi Musharraf Bhuiyan
For millions of fans of cartoon character Mina, it may be a common knowledge that how the young village girl, along with her brother Raju and the pet Mithu, saves her village from monsoon flooding or teach her community about everyday hygiene.
Very few fans however, happen to know that the last four episodes of this acclaimed cartoon series were not animated by the famous Ram Mohan studio of Mumbai, but rather a Bangladeshi company based in Dhaka.
And if you are an avid watcher of Ben10 or Juniper Lee on Cartoon Network; have you visited their websites lately? And did you know that the flashy contents of those websites were also designed by our homegrown web developers next door?
Either it is the cartoon series Mina or the web contents of Juniper Lee- these are just few examples of many unsung feats of the country's burgeoning graphics and animation industry, that has started to make its mark in the US$ 400 billion graphics animation arena worldwide.
"Around 40 per cent of the country's total IT export now comes from graphics, animation and other ITES", said Shameem Ahsan, Chief Executive Officer of eGeneration, the company which designed the websites of Ben10 and Juniper Lee for a Danish venture.
"Major jobs and services which are outsourced to Bangladesh include Desktop publishing or prepress, 2D and 3D animation and architectural designing". Shameem added.
Industry insiders are also expecting a further boom in this sector in the coming years, as the market for outsourcing and the local demand is likely to grow; and in five years' time, experts say that export from graphics and animation alone could account for US$ 300 million.
"Our competitive advantage in terms of cost is the factor which would drive the growth in the export," said Nazim Farhan Choudhury, Deputy Managing Director of Adcomm Limited.
"The same job which can be done for US$ 10 per hour per person in Bangladesh, the cost can be as high as US$ 180 in Western Europe, US$ 70 in Eastern Europe and US$ 30 in India or Vietnam", added Nazim, whose Graphic People- a Danish-Bangladesh joint venture is contracted with designing the Dell catalogue circulated around 90 countries around the world including the European households.
Around 100 companies in Bangladesh, both large and small, are now associated with graphics and animation designing; 50 of which are catering outsourced jobs to foreign ventures, and the rest of them serving the local market now estimated to be around Tk. one billion.
Interestingly, many of these companies, even the most successful ones are not based on staggering amount of investment, as the major entrepreneurs noted, neither have they required large number of manpower with long term training in the related field.
"The animators in my company were originally all Fine Arts student back in the university and after a six months to year long in house training, they become excellent animation developers", said Sarwar Alam, Managing Director of the Decode Limited, whose Greenfield Toons designed the last four episodes of Mina cartoon.
Prior to working with the Mina project of UNICEF, Greenfield Toons have also worked with Tooncan Productions of Canada to develop 2D animation films like 'Night of the Pumpkins' or 'The Witches' Christmas', which receives considerable international success.
Decode Limited- of which, Greenfiled Toons is a subsidiary, have also worked with a number Danish companies to design digital maps of several cities and urban areas of Denmark.
"Denmark has a strong presence in this field and the country's IT sector as a whole", noted a leading entrepreneur, "They are the major source of export and outsourcing, along with USA and other Scandinavian countries".
A few years ago, BJIT- a Bangladesh-Japan joint venture company teamed up with Taito, a famous Japanese game company, to develop four games developed on Symbian platform for Nokia N-Gage devices.
Currently, the same company is also working to develop, what has been termed as 'Bangladesh's first real time strategy game' called 'Train and Fight', which would be used in the future in regular training of the country's defense force through animated warfare, informed Ahmedul Islam Babu of BJIT.
Despite such numerous achievements, major backlogs in infrastructure are hampering the full potential in the sector, as some leading entrepreneurs noted.
"It is time to have a separate hi tech park", said Khandekar Mahfuz Ali of Graphic Associates, another Dane-Bangladesh joint venture which performs the desktop publishing jobs for a number Danish daily newspapers and magazines.
"It is a competitive world when you compete in the international outsourcing market and IT companies need a place where they don't get hampered during the times of political upheaval or energy shortage".
"There are ways to explore potential outsourcing market in other areas of graphics designing as well" said Rafiqul Islam Rawly, former President of BASIS, whose CSL Software Resources have worked with a number of Swiss companies in animated architectural designing and also have worked on commercials for several Swiss watch brands.
Previously, CSL also joined hands with French game developer M2M in designing a 3D game, which, if completed, would be the first 3D game developed in Bangladesh. But the project was later postponed for the global financial meltdown.
"We are still capable of embarking on such project, however the expense for such venture is higher and the local market alone is not big enough for assuring the return on investment", said Rawly.
For millions of fans of cartoon character Mina, it may be a common knowledge that how the young village girl, along with her brother Raju and the pet Mithu, saves her village from monsoon flooding or teach her community about everyday hygiene.
Very few fans however, happen to know that the last four episodes of this acclaimed cartoon series were not animated by the famous Ram Mohan studio of Mumbai, but rather a Bangladeshi company based in Dhaka.
And if you are an avid watcher of Ben10 or Juniper Lee on Cartoon Network; have you visited their websites lately? And did you know that the flashy contents of those websites were also designed by our homegrown web developers next door?
Either it is the cartoon series Mina or the web contents of Juniper Lee- these are just few examples of many unsung feats of the country's burgeoning graphics and animation industry, that has started to make its mark in the US$ 400 billion graphics animation arena worldwide.
"Around 40 per cent of the country's total IT export now comes from graphics, animation and other ITES", said Shameem Ahsan, Chief Executive Officer of eGeneration, the company which designed the websites of Ben10 and Juniper Lee for a Danish venture.
"Major jobs and services which are outsourced to Bangladesh include Desktop publishing or prepress, 2D and 3D animation and architectural designing". Shameem added.
Industry insiders are also expecting a further boom in this sector in the coming years, as the market for outsourcing and the local demand is likely to grow; and in five years' time, experts say that export from graphics and animation alone could account for US$ 300 million.
"Our competitive advantage in terms of cost is the factor which would drive the growth in the export," said Nazim Farhan Choudhury, Deputy Managing Director of Adcomm Limited.
"The same job which can be done for US$ 10 per hour per person in Bangladesh, the cost can be as high as US$ 180 in Western Europe, US$ 70 in Eastern Europe and US$ 30 in India or Vietnam", added Nazim, whose Graphic People- a Danish-Bangladesh joint venture is contracted with designing the Dell catalogue circulated around 90 countries around the world including the European households.
Around 100 companies in Bangladesh, both large and small, are now associated with graphics and animation designing; 50 of which are catering outsourced jobs to foreign ventures, and the rest of them serving the local market now estimated to be around Tk. one billion.
Interestingly, many of these companies, even the most successful ones are not based on staggering amount of investment, as the major entrepreneurs noted, neither have they required large number of manpower with long term training in the related field.
"The animators in my company were originally all Fine Arts student back in the university and after a six months to year long in house training, they become excellent animation developers", said Sarwar Alam, Managing Director of the Decode Limited, whose Greenfield Toons designed the last four episodes of Mina cartoon.
Prior to working with the Mina project of UNICEF, Greenfield Toons have also worked with Tooncan Productions of Canada to develop 2D animation films like 'Night of the Pumpkins' or 'The Witches' Christmas', which receives considerable international success.
Decode Limited- of which, Greenfiled Toons is a subsidiary, have also worked with a number Danish companies to design digital maps of several cities and urban areas of Denmark.
"Denmark has a strong presence in this field and the country's IT sector as a whole", noted a leading entrepreneur, "They are the major source of export and outsourcing, along with USA and other Scandinavian countries".
A few years ago, BJIT- a Bangladesh-Japan joint venture company teamed up with Taito, a famous Japanese game company, to develop four games developed on Symbian platform for Nokia N-Gage devices.
Currently, the same company is also working to develop, what has been termed as 'Bangladesh's first real time strategy game' called 'Train and Fight', which would be used in the future in regular training of the country's defense force through animated warfare, informed Ahmedul Islam Babu of BJIT.
Despite such numerous achievements, major backlogs in infrastructure are hampering the full potential in the sector, as some leading entrepreneurs noted.
"It is time to have a separate hi tech park", said Khandekar Mahfuz Ali of Graphic Associates, another Dane-Bangladesh joint venture which performs the desktop publishing jobs for a number Danish daily newspapers and magazines.
"It is a competitive world when you compete in the international outsourcing market and IT companies need a place where they don't get hampered during the times of political upheaval or energy shortage".
"There are ways to explore potential outsourcing market in other areas of graphics designing as well" said Rafiqul Islam Rawly, former President of BASIS, whose CSL Software Resources have worked with a number of Swiss companies in animated architectural designing and also have worked on commercials for several Swiss watch brands.
Previously, CSL also joined hands with French game developer M2M in designing a 3D game, which, if completed, would be the first 3D game developed in Bangladesh. But the project was later postponed for the global financial meltdown.
"We are still capable of embarking on such project, however the expense for such venture is higher and the local market alone is not big enough for assuring the return on investment", said Rawly.