S Korea looking for partners in animation sector

HYDERABAD: A Korean IT association- Gwangju Information Culture Industry Promotion Agency (GICIPA) has signed a memorandum of intent (MoI) with the Andhra Pradesh government to expand the trade ties between the two countries primarily in the area of animation and gaming technologies.



GICIPA has signed an MoI with AP at the India IT Forum (IITF) being held at Gitex Hyderabad. The MoI was signed for the promotion of trade ties in the field of hardware, information technology and animation among other industries. "We are looking forward to outsource good quantity of our work to countries like India in the near future and this is a step forward in that direction," said, Young Joo Kim, President and CEO at GICIPA.


"The cost of development of software is very high in South Korea and we are keen to look for partners to outsource our requirements from India," he said. "The e-governance project developed by Korea, which is very similar to eSeva, has cost us $12 million, which was developed for just $ two million in AP. We want to take advantage of this cost differential, and leverage on our and India’s expertise," he added.


The agency has started talks with at least four animation companies and some partnership will emerge soon, Kim informed, but declined to name the companies.


The Korean agency has also signed a MoU with Nisiet, a public sector undertaking under the Minister of SSI, for the promotion of mutual cooperation in IT, economic and business exchanges between the two countries. "Nisiet will provide consultancy services to us and help us find partners here. We are also exploring the possibilities of scholar and student exchange program with ISB, IIIT with Korean universities," Kim said.