Dhaka: A project titled ‘Skill Development for Mobile Game and Application’, was launched in Dhaka on Sunday to ensure footprint in the global gaming and apps market.

The project, taken by the ICT division, will create 8,750 app developers and 2,800 gaming animators by December 2017, said State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak while speaking at the launching event at the ICT division, reported UNB.

Under the project involving Tk 282 crore, seven mobile apps and game development academies will be set up at the divisional level, while mobile apps and game labs, app testing labs and training points will be launched in educational institutions across 30 districts, he said.

“There are huge potentials of ICT sector globally and the mobile game and mobile applications have an important place there,” said the state minister adding that the size of the global mobile game market, dominated by China and the USA, will stand at USD 36.9 billion at the end of the current year.

“Bangladesh has huge prospects in catching both global and local markets of mobile games and apps. Some Bangladeshi apps and games, including ‘Heroes of 71,’ ‘Tip Top Ant’ and ‘Dragon Village’ were downloaded for million times,” Palak said.

Talking about the local mobile game market, he said some 5.97 crore people out of the country’s 6.33 crore internet users now use the internet through mobile phones. “So, the mobile apps and games have prospect in the domestic market.”

ICT Division Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder said this is for the first time Bangladesh is implementing such a gaming project.

Software expert Mustafa Jabbar, creator of Bijoy software, said Bangladesh does not concentrate on its local software and game market, though the country has a large domestic market of 16 crore people.

“We always consider only the global market, not the local market.  Foreign countries occupy our local software market. We seek your cooperation (ICT Division) so that we can catch our market competing with others,” he said.

Former Microsoft consultant architect Nusrat Jamil said Bangladesh need to develop its local software market as it lost own banking software market.

He stressed the need for forging a persistent network with non-resident Bangladeshi experts for rapid development of the country’ s ICT sector.

ICT Division Secretary Shyam Sunder Siker, Project Director Susanta Kumar Shaha, President of Bangladesh Association for Software and Information Services (BASIS) Shameem Ahsan, developer of ‘Heroes of 71’ game Marsha Mustakim and BASIS Vice President Russell T Ahmed spoke on the occasion.