Dr. Rehman was speaking at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) on “Gaming as an export industry: opportunities and challenges for Pakistan”.
Dr Hameed-ur-Rehman of Air University provided a list of ongoing initiatives to educate kids about the careers possibilities in the gaming industry and enhance teaching methods to pique their interest in it.
Dr. Rehman was speaking at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) on “Gaming as an export industry: opportunities and challenges for Pakistan”.
Despite its enormous potential, Dr Rehman acknowledged that only a small number of students currently view gaming industry as viable careers option. The objective is to persuade more students to look into the careers in gaming and to capitalise on the industry’s potential for economic growth.
The CEO of 9D Technologies, Abdul Salam, acknowledged that there is a skilled labour shortage in the gaming industry and expressed his concerns about this shortage within his own private business.
He emphasized the need for the education sector to produce a pool of talented people specifically trained in animation and game development in order to address this critical shortage of skilled resources, noting that the challenge lies in finding qualified professionals despite having the capacity and potential for team expansion.
It was urged by Kashoon Leeza, Policy Advocacy Lead P@SHA, that Pakistan has a sizable user base of gamers, with 80 million people. She did, however, draw attention to the lack of specific policies addressing IT sub-sectors given that the current 26 policies are applied to the entire IT industry.
She also brought up the lack of a well-organized one-window system, which limits access to foreign funding even though Pakistan offers direct investors 100% ownership.
IGNITE National Technology Fund’s General Manager, Muhammad Bilal Abbasi, emphasised the need for government intervention to close the gaps that the private sector has identified, such as the lack of motion detection suits and studio space for game developers.