Sri Lanka becomes 3rd best country in Asia Pacific ICT Awards

From left: BCSSL Chairman Ruwan Amarasekara, FITIS Vice Chairman Abbas Kamrudeen, and FITIS Chairman Dr. Kithsiri Manchanayake

Sri Lanka clinched three coveted gold and seven merit awards at the recently concluded Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA) 2018 in Guangzhou, China, the Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS), and BCS Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka (BCSSL) announced.

Infoseek Ltd., DirectPay Ltd., and University of Sri Jayawardenapura undergraduate Dulan Dias won gold awards. Merit award winners are Pulz Technology, Epic Lanka Ltd., Park and Pay Ltd., Ministry of Defence Centre for Research and Development, and Wavenet Ltd., Ananda College student Chirath Nirodha, and De Mazenold College, Kandana, student Supun Sasipriya Silva. 

The competition consists of 16 categories of which Sri Lanka competed in seven and won the above awards. This is the largest number of awards that Sri Lanka has won in one year and it made Sri Lanka the third highest ranking country just behind China and Hong Kong in the 2018 competition. The participants were selected from the winners of the National Best Quality ICT Awards (NBQSA) 2018, which was organised by BCSSL, and secondary student projects were selected from the participants of Young Computer Scientist (YCS) 2018 organised by the Federation of IT Industry for Sri Lanka (FITIS) Software Chapter. Prior to their departure to China, the participants were coached for over a month by experienced judges from BCSSL and Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS). 

The officials representing Sri Lanka at this international event consisted of FITIS Chairman Dr. Kithsiri Manchanayake as the Head of the Sri Lankan Delegation, FITIS Vice Chairman Abbas Kamrudeen, BCSSL Chairman Ruwan Amaresekara, BCSSL Secretary Vajeendra S. Kandegamage as the APICTA Executive Committee Member, Ransith Fernando and K. V.  Kuganathan as the APICTA Judges, Sanjeewa Perera as the Advisor Economy Coordinator, and Jayarukshi Jayalath as the Economy Coordinator. 

Also APICTA Immediate Past Chairman Dr. Dileepa De Silva, FITIS Software Chapter President Wellington Perera and BCSSL Executive Council Member M. G. Thilakarathne, and all Executive Council Members of FITIS and BCSSL contributed their knowledge and experience to make this a proud moment.

Expressing his views on this global awards program, FITIS Software Chapter Vice Chairman Abbas Kamrudeen said: “The Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards is an international awards program organised by the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance, which aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide. APICTA is an alliance of national ICT organisations representing their respective countries to build and enhance a mutually cooperative network to promote ICT, enhance technology innovations, capability, and adoption, and encourage the development of indigenous ICT solutions for the global market.”

“As Sri Lankans, it was a proud day for all of us to see our companies and students reach the pinnacle and win the prestigious Gold awards and Merit awards at APICTA 2018 by defeating participants from 15 Asia Pacific countries who took part in the competition.’’ 

“This was no easy feat and should not be taken lightly. Competing against countries, such as Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, amongst other such nations where facilities and infrastructure far surpass Sri Lanka, speaks volumes about the talent and capabilities of our ICT Industry,” BCSSL Chairman Ruwan Amarasekara emphasised.