BIDC 2017 to be held this March

BANGKOK, March 6 (TNA) -- Thailand's Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) joined forces with its alliances to hold the biggest digital content festival in the country. DITP Director-General Ms Malee Choklumlerd said DITP together with Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) have joined forces with five associations on digital content to begin preparations for the hosting of Bangkok International Digital Content Festival 2017 or BIDC Festival 2017, the biggest digital content event of the year and would be held for the 4th consecutive this year under the theme, "Digital Wonderland." The event is scheduled to be held between March 20-24 at Centara Grand at Central World in Bangkok. Organisers of the event are expected over 500 business negotiations to take place, creating a trade value of 800 million baht. More than 120 digital content companies from around the world are set to participate in the festival, where interested Thai entrepreneurs s would get the chance to join in on business deals with world class businesses from the US, UK, France, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Visitors would also be able to enjoy outstanding works on animation such as VR games, computer graphics, e-learning, special techniques to create images, along with the BIDC Awards for outstanding works in 2016. Seminars and workshops would also organised on March 22-24, participated by honourable experts from various sectors both from within the country and around the globe, such as lecturers from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Grasshopper Manufacturer, whereas the Japan External Trade Organsation (JETRO) has also invited a famous speaker from TV Tokyo Communications Corporation to lecture at the seminar. Ms Malee said the value of the digital content in Thailand is as high as 12.745 billion baht in 2016, an increase of about 12.4 per cent from 2015, where income has been divided into two categories of animation at 3.851 billion bath and 8.894 billion baht for the gaming sector, in which industries are mostly propelled by international animation and game imports. In 2016, Thailand was able to export a total of 1.545 billion baht of digital content, comprising of 499 million baht for animation exports and 1.046 billion baht for games. (TNA)