Team Pakistan picks 3 Gold & 1 Silver at major regional technology awards in Colombo

The Team Pakistan displayed stunning technological performance at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2015 and won three Gold and one Silver at the award ceremony held in Colombo recently. 

The Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES – P@SHA delegation comprised of 50 members with 22 technology products, competing for the prestigious APICTA Awards against 197 products from 17 countries of the region. 

The Sri Lankan Minister for Telecom and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando was the Chief Guest at the awards ceremony, which was also graced by the High Commissioner of Pakistan in Sri Lanka Maj Gen (Retd) Syed Shakeel Hussain. 

Leading the way with the Gold were the teams from Eyedeus Labs for their new product ‘Ingrain’, Evamp & Sanga for their product Mobile ‘Audio Streaming Service’ and students from the NUST College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering for their research project ‘Active and Intelligent Powered Ankle Foot Prosthesis for Trans-tibial Amputees’. 

The Silver Award was taken by a very young team from The Nest i/o – P@SHA’s Technology Incubator in Karachi for their project ‘Teddict’.

Winners from the Asia Pacific compete in this three day regional event judged by industry professionals, technology veterans and thought leaders from the APAC region. 

 International APICTA Judges from 17 countries who evaluated the categories in which Pakistan participated spoke about the consistently high standard of technology products presented by Pakistan, year after year. 

This year Team Pakistan performed superbly, with young people once again taking the lead.  With the support of Samsung and Google for Entrepreneurs, P@SHA was able to take to Colombo, a number of young teams of Pakistani IT professionals under the banner of Team Pakistan. The objective was to bring them face-to-face with the best technology companies, professionals and students in the Asia Pacific, to provide an opportunity to meet and form potential partnerships with each other and to attract business and possible investment. 

Dressed in their green Team Pakistan t-shirts, the team from Pakistan created impact by putting up a great show. The international judges commended the members of team Pakistan for displaying high calibre of work which truly represented Pakistan’s booming tech sector. They were absolutely blown away by the younger members that took part in the Tertiary Student Category and the Secondary School Project category.

While speaking on the occasion, President P@SHA Jehan Ara said, “The P@SHA ICT Awards – a P@SHA signature event for the past 12 years, has provided a platform to show the world what technology companies and young people in Pakistan are capable of.  This year we have once again proven that our products can be benchmarked against the best in the region.”

Dr. Shoab A. Khan, Immediate Past Chairman of P@SHA and a judge at the APICTA event said, “The standard of competition is improving each year and we know that because it is the best products from each country that compete, we will have to share the accolades.” Other judges from Pakistan include Jawwad A. Farid, Badar Khushnood and Sultan Hamdani.

On hearing news of Team Pakistan’s performance, current P@SHA Chairman Syed Ahmad said, “Top performances at APICTA 2015 have shown that young Pakistani IT entrepreneurs are the best in the region. If the IT industry gets further support, it can provide millions of jobs and help the Government achieve its Pakistan Vision 2025.”

 The Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) was founded in 1992. Today its membership includes more than 450 of the country’s largest software houses, product development centres, BPO companies, animation and new media studios and consulting and system integration companies.

 P@SHA’s main objective is to promote and develop the software and services industry in Pakistan and to protect the rights of its members. P@SHA has been an active industry advocacy platform and has been projecting the potential of the Pakistan IT and ITES community internationally, especially in the region such as South Asia, Middle East and Asia Pacific. P@SHA and its member companies are playing an active role in making their presence felt, both nationally and internationally.