Animation nowadays is spread throughout different age groups in the world, and the environment of the animation industry has become more and more competitive and requires animators to have higher skills to foster the market.

This Seminar is a follow-up to the Asia-Pacific International Animation Conference co-organised by ACCU and the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) from 22 to 26 March 2007. At the Conference, the Joint Statement was adopted by the participants from eight countries, and it was confirmed that human resource development, education reform for creativity and innovation, improvement of market environment, and international cooperation among Asian countries are the keys for achieving the goal of promoting the animation industry and culture in the region and as an effective communication tool to exert good influence on society.

ACCU recognises the animation as modern culture which has great potential to grow as cultural and artistic expressions of humanity. This seminar is the second programme that ACCU implements for promotion of cultural diversity and modern art and cultures in accordance with the “UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity” which was adopted at the 31st General Conference in 2001.

ACCU and AJA co-organised this Seminar to meet the needs to develop human resources, such as cultural policy makers, business managers, and skilful animation creators, in Asia and the Pacific region to be empowered to compete in the global market. Cultural policy makers of the central government, educational experts for business and technical professionals in animation, and animation producers/animators from China, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand participated in the Seminar. This Seminar focused on three areas; cultural policy, strategic management and human resource development.