Lights, cameras - animation

By Dong Hui  |   2008-7-3  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE Pudong New Area government expects to attract more than 200 animation and cartoon enterprises into Zhangjiang High-tech Park within five to 10 years, the district government said yesterday.

To forge the city's animation industry base in Zhangjiang, the government plans to set up an "animation valley" as Phase 2 of the Zhangjiang Creative Industry Base.

The plan also involves building China's first animation museum and animation cinema. The "animation valley" will be a market-oriented research and development platform jointly invested by the Pudong New Area government, Shanghai Zhangjiang (Group) Co Ltd and Shanghai Movie Art Academy, district officials said.

The final goal within a decade is to create more than 5 billion yuan (US$730 million) in output value of animation-related products, and have three to five leading companies in the comics and animation, film and TV post-production and design sectors. In other words, it will be cartoon central.

A complete industry chain including creation, planning, brokerage, post-production, marketing, communication, extensive development and tourism is expected to be forged.

In the past three years, Zhangjiang Creative Industry Base has attracted more than 20 companies in comics and animation making. Those companies have been cooperating with Net-games firms.