ISLAMABAD: Pakistan to host Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards for the first time ever, which provides networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs, besides stimulating ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations.
The event is planned for the first week of December 2022 where all of the 16-member economies are expected to participate. India is not part of the Alliance.
This was announced by APICTA Awards delegation headed by its chairman Stan Singh, currently visiting Pakistan. Addressing a press conference Stan Singh flanked by Badar Khushnood, Chairman P@SHA, Fulvio Inserra, Vice Chairman and other members stated that APICTA Awards is an international awards programme, which aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide.
The reason for choosing Pakistan was that the country passed through challenging period and the economy is now back on track, Khushnood added.
APICTA’s mission is to provide the platform to catalyze and recognize indigenous ICT innovations and to stimulate economic & workforce development, trade relations and technology collaboration in the Asia Pacific region, they added.
By providing networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs in the region, the programme is designed to facilitate technology transfer, and offer business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and investors.
APICTA chairman Stan Singh said that ICT is no more business enabler but business itself.
Participants of the awards programme comprise members of the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance APICTA. They are guided by the Framework of Cooperation identifying how member economies can work together in support of the awards programme as well as other programmes that foster the development and growth of the ICT industry in the region.
Until today, members of APICTA consist of 16 economies including Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Nepal.
Entry to the awards programme is open to the winners of similar awards programmes in each member economy. Companies are nominated by their economy and travel to the awards where they present their solution to a panel of judges. Judges come from every member economy and to attain a fair and equitable judging process, the Exco Judging Sub-committee has developed an official and copyrighted APICTA JUDGING MANUAL.
Participants of the awards programme comprise members of the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance APICTA. They are guided by the Framework of Cooperation identifying how member-economies can work together in support of the awards programme as well as other programmes that foster development and growth of the ICT industry in the region.
Khushnood said that P@SHA, the apex trade body for the IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) industry is conducting the 18th annual P@SHA ICT awards later in October this year and through a detailed process of evaluation by a jury of world-renowned members. The winners and runner-ups will consequently be participating in Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2022 to showcase their talent and compete on an international platform.
He further highlighted Pakistan’s continued improvement in the ease of doing business and the ease of travelling for foreigners through the new online visa process.
He further said that the IT industry is currently the only industry in Pakistan that can grow at an exponential rate and contribute to exports growth in the same spirit by the highest cash flow positive grading and the easiest to expand since the industry relies only on availability of talent and conducive policies to help it grow.
He said that ICT sector is the second biggest exporting sector of Pakistan after textile as it has passed the rice.
The IT industry exports in the last two years have jumped from approximately $ 1.4 billion in 2020 to $ 2.1 billion in 2021 and to $ 2.62 billion in 2022, showing a growth of 87 percent in just two years, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022