Animated film production

JAKARTA (JP): PT Asiana Wang Animation, a joint venture animated film company, will produce about 50 animated film episodes this year, the company's executive said.

Company president Indrasari Satyowati said on Friday that the firm would double production next year to meet existing contracts.

Asiana Wang Animation is 60 percent owned by publicly listed toy manufacturing firm PT Asiana Multikreasi and 40 percent by Taiwan's Wang Film Production Co., which is controlled by the island state's largest investment firm, China Development Corp., and Hanna Barberra, the world's largest animated film maker.

Indrasari said that the 2-year-old Asiana Wang produced 37 animated film episodes last year which were sold to a number of overseas television stations.

She explained that the company had boosted its workforce to 270 from 30 in September 1996 when it first started commercial production.

"The future of animation is bright judging by the tremendous growth the industry has enjoyed worldwide over the last 25 years," she said. (rei)