This year, a total of 180 nominations from 16 member economies for 16 categories. “From a small member base of 5 countries in the first International APICTA Awards, we have now grown to include 17 nations across the Asia-Pacific region, most recently adding Taiwan to our ranks,” said Sutee Satanasathapon, Chairman of APICTA. The 16 member economies of APICTA are Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Since it started in 2001, the awards programme has recognized and rewarded the innovation of numerous ICT companies across the Asia-Pacific region. Past APICTA winners have contributed to the regional ICT Industry with two such examples being:

• CyberPlanet Interactive Co. Ltd., 2004 Winner for Media and Entertainment, has become a public-listed company and expanded into China and Japan to become the largest console game developer in South East Asia
• Les’ Copaque, 2007 Winner for Best Start-up Company, is now rated as one of Malaysia’s foremost production and animation houses with its flagship animation series, Upin & Ipin with broadcast in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and South Korea.

Malaysia won 4 Awards

There are a total of 29 Malaysian finalists for this year’s Awards, consisting of 24 companies, 3 universities and 2 schools. Winners are judged based on these criteria:

• Uniqueness
• Market potential / value for public
• Functionalities and features
• Quality and application of technology
• Presentation

In this year’s International APICTA Awards, a total of 4 Malaysian entries winning the following categories – Research and Development, Tourism and Hospitality, E-Learning, and E-Government. Singapore-based Ephone International Pte Ltd clinched two awards – Best E-Health and Best Start-up Company – for its product, EPI Life. Other notable winners are IP Payments Account Receivable Solution from Australia, which won the Financial Industry Applications category and Thai company, Geomove Co. Ltd. for their Sensor Service Grid application, which won the Tools & Infrastructure category.

Here’s the full list of winners:
Best of Research and Development: nuRF Wireless Sensor Network and Smart Wireless System – Free Alliance (Malaysia)

Best of Tourism and Hospitality: GDX Guest Services Management – FCS Computer Systems (Malaysia)

Best of E-Learning: Jayonik Convoy Dynamic Driving Simulator System – Jayonik MSC Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)

Best of e-Government: eKasih National Databank on Poverty – Implementation Coordination Unit, Prime Minister’s Department (Malaysia)

Best of Start-Up Companies / Best of e-Health: EPI Life – Ephone International Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of Financial Industry Application: IP Payments Account Receivables Solution – IP Payments Pty Ltd (Australia)

Best of Tools and Infrastructure: Sensor Service GRID – Geomove Co. Ltd (Thailand)

Best of New Media and Entertainment: Scoreless Music Suite – Scoreless Music Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of Communications: Smoov.me – Smoov Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of Security Application: iMatch Mobile – PCS Security Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of E-Inclusion and E-Community: Brain Fitness Gymnasium for the Ederly – The Hong Kong Society for the Aged (Hong Kong)

Best of E-Logistics and Supply Chain Management: NEOtrace – NEO Invention Co. Ltd. (Thailand)

Best of Industrial Application: Java Human Machine Interface Engine – Thales Australia (Australia)

Best of Secondary Student Project: My mom’s mobile phone as my sister’s tutor – Salman Al Fansi Full Day School (Indonesia)

Best of Tertiary Student Projects: Stereoscopic video generation from Monoscopic Video – City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)

APICTA Lifetime ICT Award

The evening also saw former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad received a Lifetime ICT Achievement Award, for his contribution to the ICT industry. The MSC Malaysia is the brainchild of the Tun Mahathir.

Winners at the 10th International Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2010 originally appeared on GreyReview.com on October 17, 2010.

• Encouraging entrepreneurship: “…bankruptcy laws will be simplified to support a risk-taking culture, eliminate the stigma of failure and allow high calibre and credible entrepreneurs who fail to become active again (p 20);
• National Key Economic Areas, NKEAs: Information and communication technology, ICT as one of the 12 NKEAs (p. 15).
• Focus on soft infrastructure development: The 10th Malaysia Plan’s “allocation for non-physical infrastructure will be increased to 40%, compared with 21.8% in the 9MP. Focus will be given to skills development programmes, R&D activities and venture capital funding geared towards promoting a higher level of innovation in the country” (page 14);
• Growth funds: Mudharabah Innovation Fund “with an allocation of 500 million ringgit, will be introduced to provide risk capital to government venture capital companies” and Business Growth Fund “to bridge the financing gap between the early stage of commercialisation and venture capital financing for high tech products” (p. 20);
• Technology-driven development of NKEAs: “the application of high technology will be emphasised in the development of NKEAs. Technology platforms such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and high-end engineering will further increase the impact of the NKEAs on economic growth” (p. 16);
• Competition Law: The Law “will be introduced to provide a regulatory framework against market manipulation and cartel practices that may affect market efficiency” (p. 17);
• Working Capital Guarantee Scheme: Additional RM3 billion allocation for the Scheme, which is designed to “ensure that the SMEs have better access to financing facilities” (p 24).

Full speech transcript here.

10th Malaysia Plan on IT, entrepreneurship and startups, announced by PM @najibrazak originally appeared on GreyReview.com on June 10, 2010.

The 15 promising open-source companies were selected from a total 46 open-source companies (out of 1929 MSC Malaysia status companies, as of Nov 25 2008). However, for whatever reason, MDeC didn’t reveal the identities of the 15 companies.

A simple search (by MSC Malaysia qualifying activities) with the term ‘open source‘ from the MSC Malaysia Company Directory only yields 10 companies, namely:

1. Byte Craft Sdn Bhd
2. Microlink Solutions Bhd
3. KZEN Solutions Sdn Bhd
4. MNS Systems (MSC) Sdn Bhd
5. Getronics Technology Sdn Bhd
6. ELX Operating Systems Sdn Bhd
7. Synchroweb Software (MSC) Sdn Bhd
8. Abyres MSC Sdn Bhd
9. Jayway Malaysia Sdn Bhd
10. Open Application Systems Sdn Bhd

15 Mysterious ‘Thoroughbred’ Malaysian Open-Source Companies originally appeared on GreyReview.com on November 25, 2008.