BICTA awards to spur ICT innovations

WITH Bruneians making rapid strides in ICT innovations, the Brunei ICT Award (BICTA) 2012 competition participants were urged to work on products that can be utilised in domestic and help fulfil local needs. This was the message of Dato Paduka Hj Alaihuddin POKDGSLDSU Hj Mohammad Taha, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications, to all participants at the Brunei ICT Award (BICTA) 2012 competition jointly launched by the Ministry of Communications (MoC), The Authority for Info-communications Technology of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) and Infocom Federation Brunei (IFB) at the Rizqun International Hotel yesterday.

"ICT is increasingly becoming not just an enabler or a useful tool for growth but also provide an opportunity for personal enrichment that can help transform one's economic and social life into a more successful and satisfying career development," the permanent secretary said.

He highlighted the significant achievement Brunei has attained in Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards in Pattaya, Thailand, last year where Bruneians cornered the highest number of awards.

"We not only got APICTA Award under the E-Learning Category for the first time but also received two other Merit Category for our students under Secondary School and Tertiary School Categories," said the permanent secretary.

With the success, the permanent secretary urged BICTA participants to turn their attention to collaboration and cooperation with foreign partners to help local products penetrate the larger markets overseas.

BICTA participants have also called to "pay close attention to the future trends of technology" to meet the demand and need of the local and global consumers and the ICT market at large.

The permanent secretary also said that he views the trend in technology development evolving as a "lifestyle and tool for individual progress." He asked principals and teachers to encourage students to develop more ICT school projects and SMEs to come up with more innovative projects to develop ICT related products.

During the launch, success stories of the recent APICTA Awards 2011 recipients, Crescent Sdn Bhd, the winner of the E-Learning Category, Chung Hwa School, the merit award holder of the Secondary Student Category, and merit awardee of Tertiary Student Category, Sultan Saiful Rijal Technical School, were shared in order to spur and encourage more participation in the BICTA 2012 and subsequently, APICTA 2012.

The competition is open to participants in three categories, Secondary Student Project, Tertiary Student Project and professionals in the ICT industry. Winners in the three categories stand to win up to $10,000 cash prizes.

Apart from the four special awards, namely, "Made in Brunei Product Award", "Green ICT Award", "Islamic ICT Award" and "New Media and Entertainment Award", this year's BICTA will include "The Royal Patron Award", to be given only once in two years, to the best products amongst all the categories, the press release by AITI says.

BICTA, in its 8th year, is aimed to nurture and unleash the potential of local ICT industries to become more marketable, sustainable and to gain international recognition in the areas of ICT software development.

Winners of BICTA 2012 will be nominated to participate in APICTA 2012 to be held in December 2012.

The interested participants can visit the BICTA 2012 website (www.bicta.gov.bn) for more details and application forms. Closing date for submitting applications is June 15, 2012.The Brunei Times