Malaysia Tops At APICTA 2009 Awards In Australia

MELBOURNE, Dec 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia once again showed its prowess at the International Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2009 by walking away with six awards.

Malaysia won the main awards in the Communication, Creation and Management to New Media and Entertainment, e-Government and Financial Industry Application categories.

The merit wins were in the Secondary Student Project and Tertiary Student Project categories.

Tranglo Sdn Bhd was chosen as the winner in the Communication category, SHOCK3D! for Creation and Management to New Media and Entertainment, Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) for e-Government and eBworx Berhad for Financial Industry Application.

The Sultan Alam Shah Secondary School team and the Multimedia University (Cyberjaya) picked up the merit wins under the secondary student and the tertiary student projects respectively.

The results of the competition was announced at a glittering gala dinner ceremony at the Crown Tower Hotel here last night.

Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali, who was elated over the good performance, said it proved once again the capability, quality and uniqueness of the products, services and solutions created and offered by Malaysian companies, government agency and students.

"We are proud of their achievements which has brought further glory to Malaysia as innovators in the ICT industry," he said.

MAMPU's Deputy Director of Infrastructure Development, eKL, Norhalina Abdul said they were excited as it was one of the first projects conceptualised by a Malaysian government agency to have won an International ICT award.

"We hope more government agencies will follow suit in taking part in such competitions in the future," Norhalina said.

Creative director of SHOCK3D! Eugene Foo expressed his surprise over the win because he said they anticipated stiff competition from the other nominees.

"We are very grateful to International APICTA as it gave recognition to the creative industry and we could not have won if not for the teamwork at SHOCK3D!, and the training and motivation by MDeC," Foo said.

Afeeq Shaszwan Zambree, who spoke on behalf of his team from the Sultan Alam Shah Secondary School said they were feeling jubilant as it proved their efforts had not been in vain.

"This win will spur us to take part in international competitions like APICTA" he said.

At the ceremony, Abdul Halim also accepted the chairmanship for Malaysia to host next year's International APICTA Awards 2010 in Kuala Lumpur.

In his acceptance speech, Abdul Halim conveyed an invitation to all APICTA member economies to attend the APICTA Awards in Kuala Lumpur, which will mark its 10th anniversary next year.

He said the event was ``very meaningful'' as Malaysia had mooted the introduction of the awards and had hosted it in the initial two years.

MDeC led the Malaysian delegation to compete in 15 categories against APICTA's member-economies including Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

A total of 158 nominees from the APICTA member economies took part in three-day event here.