Bangladesh’s BASIS, universities to fight for APICTA Awards

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, BASIS is going to join a regional competition of IT innovation named APICTA 2016.

Ten of the BASIS member companies will compete with participants of sixteen member states of Asia Pacific ICT Alliance from Dec 2-5 in Taiwan’s capital Taipei.

Delegations from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), North South University (NSU) and the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB) will also take part in the competition, billed as the “Oscars of the ICT arena” under education category.

The APICTA says the award aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide.

By providing networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs in the region, it says on the website, the programme is designed to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations, facilitate technology transfer, and offer business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and investors,.

On Thursday, BASIS Senior Vice-President Russell T Ahmed briefed journalists about the competition in a `Meet-the-press’ event at the BASIS headquarters at Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar.

Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Nepal are the member-economies of the APICTA. Last year, Bangladesh was selected as member of this regional business body.

Russell acknowledged that winning the award will be ‘very tough’ as the jury board selects only one winner from seventeen competitors in 11 categories each. 

With no experience of the competition, BASIS hopes to put up a good show and boost its confidence.

As BASIS member, Twister Media Technology, REVE Systems, RX71 Limited, Doctorola Limited, Future Solution For Business LTD, Business Automation Ltd, Analyzen Bangladesh Limited, Kranti Associates Ltd, Bondstein Technologies Ltd and Humaclab Ltd are among the participants from Bangladesh, said Russell.

Participants will showcase their innovation in ICT.