Sri Lankan ICT industry creates history at APICTA Awards 2017

The Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) conducted its Annual ICT Awards competition in Dhaka, Bangladesh from December 7th to 10th 2017.

This competition is held to identify the best ICT products which have won awards in their respective country competitions. APICTA Awards is the largest such competition in the Asia Pacific Region and is sometimes referred to as the ‘Oscar Awards in ICT’. The Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards is dedicated to the increase of ICT awareness in the region and assists in bridging the digital divide.

The highlight of the awards ceremony was Sri Lanka winning three Gold trophies and six Merit awards. As per the APICTA Awards rules, the Merit recognition is awarded only if the product receives less than .05 percent marks difference to the winning product of the category.

The competition consists of 17 categories and Sri Lanka competed in eight categories and won the above awards. This is the largest number of awards that Sri Lanka had won in one year and it made Sri Lanka the second highest ranking country just behind Hong Kong in 2017 competition. The participants were selected from the winners of National Best Quality ICT Awards (NBQSA) 2017 which was organised by BCS the Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section (BCSSL) and secondary student projects were selected from the participants of Young Computer Scientist (YCS) organised by Federation of IT Industry for Sri Lanka (FITIS) Software Chapter. Prior to the departure to Dhaka, for over one month the participants were coached by experienced judges from BCSSL Vajeendra S. Kandegamage, Geethapriya Tillekeratne, Ruwan Amarasekara, Shanaka Rajapakse and Welinton Perera supported from the FITIS Software Chapter.

The 49-member delegation was led by the two main bodies of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka, BCS the Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section (BCSSL) and the Federation of IT Industry for Sri Lanka (FITIS) - Software Chapter.

The officials representing Sri Lanka in this international event consisted of the incumbent APICTA Chairman Dr. Dileepa De Silva, BCS the Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section Chairman Ruwan Amaresekara as the APICTA Executive Committee Member, as judges Vajeendra S. Kandegamage, Geethapriya Thilakarathna, Ransit Fernando, Shanaka Rajapaksha and FITIS Software Chapter President Welinton Perera. The country coordinator for the event was Chadika Yahampath.