NEWS: More planned for Apicta winners

KUALA LUMPUR: Winners of this year’s Apicta (Asia-Pacific ICT Award) will not only be going home with trophies but also stand a chance to be nominated for two other international awards.

They will go on to represent the country at the international-level APICTA ceremony, which is in Jakarta, Indonesia, in November. They will also represent the country at the World Summit Awards (WSA) in Belgium next year.

WSA is a biennial global initiative for selecting and promoting the best companies in e-content and creativity. It is held within the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society, and is officially supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, and the Global Alliance for ICT Development.

A week-long training programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and two scholarships worth RM60,000 each from the Asia-Pacific University College of Technology and Information, await the winners of the Apicta Prime Minister’s Award and Best of Secondary Student Project, respectively.

At the entrepreneurship development programme (EDP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, the recipients of the Prime Minister’s Award will learn to create, identify and evaluate new venture opportunities, as well as how to enhance and expand their business networks.

Winners of the Best Secondary School Project category will vie for the two scholarships from UCTI. The scholarships will cover tuition fees for the duration of each course.

Custodian of the MSC Malaysia initiative, the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC) wants this year’s Apicta to be more than just another awards ceremony.

“We hope that it can be recognised as the “Oscars” of the ICT (information and communications technology) industry,” MDeC chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said, referring to the highest accolade presented to movers and shakers of the international film industry.

Badlisham was speaking at a press conference at the National Islamic Arts Museum last week to announce this year’s Apicta.

MDeC is accepting nominations for all 19 categories of awards until the end of this month. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in October.

For more information, go to www.mscapicta.com.my.