Animation outsourcing to attract millions and jobs for Jamaicans

BY STEVEN JACKSON

Friday, February 14, 2014    

ANIMATION experts will use the outsourcing model to attract US$ millions and create jobs for Jamaicans.

Its a model practised by the local-based call centres which attract Fortune 500 outsourcing contracts and employ thousands. The difference is that animation outsourcing earns more at some US$68 billion compared with US$43 billion for call centres, according to local experts and an industry survey from audit firm KPMG respectively.

“Just give me one per cent,” reasoned Wayne Sinclair, head of GSW Studios, in reference to earning generated by the known cartoon series The Simpsons.

He addressed the three-day Regional Conference on IP and Creative Industries 2014 on Wednesday at the University of the West Indies, Mona.

“As individual territories we cannot compete against the 1.7 billion people in China, 2 billion from India and so on. But we can offer specialised services higher up the value chain given the technology that exists, we can make an impact in carving out a piece of the pie in the global animation industry,” Sinclair said.

The profile of the local animation sector rocketed in the last year following the opening of studios, academic programmes and Government facilitation services. In essence stakeholders view cartoons as serious business.

“Companies will be outsourcing to India or locally to for instance, GSW and [they] want to know that you can produce the level of quality that their fan base expects to see,” reasoned Kevin Jackson, director of public relations and finance at Jamaica Animation Network in his address at the conference.

The island’s lack of scale and experience is balanced by the common language with North America and UK producers; proximity and time zone similarity; and competitive pricing.

“This expansion is expected to provide 5,000 jobs in the Caribbean over the next few years,” stated Robert Scott head of exporting at JAMPRO at the conference.

The global animation industry earns some US$250 billion annually with roughly one-quarter outsourced mainly to India, South Korea and Philippines, according to industry estimates. The opportunity for Jamaica comes when these markets are buckling from excess work.

“When we look at the traditional outsourcing markets. They themselves are developing own intellectual property [shows]. So guess what — they don’t have any time to do other people’s work. That creates an opportunity for us,” said Scott.

In the short-term JAMPRO wants to drive job creation by taking advantage of outsourcing opportunities in animation. Then transition to more content ownership of animations for export.

“We don’t have enough animators to do the jobs,” he said of shortage of supply within the context of UWI recently graduating its first cohort of animators.

The medium term is the creation of locally owned shows exported globally. Currently Cabbie Chronicles developed locally is exported to seven countries, said Scott.

Regionally, the Caribbean Animation Cluster Project was established. It’s a programme sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) which involves studios from a select number of Caribbean territories.

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Animation outsourcing to attract millions and jobs for Jamaicans

NWC needs rate regime that can attract financing, says Pickersgill

WATER, Land, Environment and Climate Change Minister Robert Pickersgill says his ministry is now awaiting the determination of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) on the National Water Commission’s (NWC) rate increase application.

The NWC applied to the OUR on April 12, 2013 for a new adjustment. It is seeking a 19 per cent increase in rates, in addition to other adjustments. The OUR has since conducted public consultations on the request for a rate review involving the NWC which made presentations at the meetings and fielded questions from the public on its application.The minister has, in the meantime, dismissed criticism from the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party about the process.“I defiantly disagree with the sentiments expressed by the Opposition spokesman and his leader. I would have thought that the protocol surrounding a live application before the OUR would have prevented comments aimed at politicising the review process,” Pickersgill told the House during his contribution to the 2013/14 Sectoral Debate at Gordon House in Kingston.Opposition Leader Andrew Holness, during his contribution to the Budget Debate in April, urged the Government not to permit the 19 per cent rate increase. At the same time, the party’s spokesman on water and housing, Dr Horace Chang, said the money could have been better spent on improving the commission’s procurement and implementation capacity and to speed up K-Factor-funded projects.Pickersgill, on Tuesday, stopped just short of tagging the Opposition as hypocritical.“It is curious that in 2008, under their stewardship, they sought an increase of 44 per cent. They received 23 per cent, with a scheduled review five years later. The NWC is now seeking an increase of 12 per cent on the base rate along with adjustments to the X Factor,” said the water minister.He also told the House that the NWC has completed its public consultations, in conjunction with the OUR, which revealed that “the primary concern of consumers is access to potable water rather than the cost, especially in the rural areas”.He added that the tariff submission is based mainly on the commission’s efforts to expand and improve potable water and sewerage services to the Jamaican people.Pickersgill said the entity’s expansion and improvement needed to be supported by a rate regime which would enable it to attract financing for its programmes and projects.In the meantime, the minister said the high cost of energy consumption remained a challenge for the NWC.“The National Water Commission is one of the largest consumers of energy in this country and in fact, uses approximately five per cent of the total energy consumed in the country. We are aiming for a reduction in energy consumption costs by 30 per cent over the next five years,” the minister said.Pickersgill told the House that among the strategic initiatives to be pursued by the Commission to reduce energy usage, are resorting to the alternative production of energy, the replacement of 320 old inefficient pumps, rehabilitation of 288 tanks with the necessary controls to prevent overflows and, most importantly, taking advantage of using the recently approved power wheeling policy.He said, however, that despite an increase in the Jamaica Public Service’s energy costs of nine per cent from 2011 to 2013, the NWC’s energy expense only increased by four per cent year over year. “This suggests that the NWC has actually become more energy-efficient in 2012/2013,” Pickersgill noted.In the meantime, he said non-revenue water or losses consisting of leaks, overflowing tanks, meter under-registration and water theft continue to plague the entity.“The National Water Commission is presently pursuing several initiatives which are designed to stop this haemorrhaging. These include mains replacement, network management, water supply management and mass replacement of old defective revenue meters,” Pickersgill told the House. He said the NWC will be replacing 100,000 domestic meters and 3,000 large commercial/industrial customer meters, commencing this September.

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NWC needs rate regime that can attract financing, says Pickersgill