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Wednesday, 3 August 2011 01:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Cassandra Mascarenhas
Recognising exceptional ICT innovations and achievements in Sri Lanka, the National Best Quality ICT Awards (NBQSA), the only National competition of its kind, will be held for the 13th consecutive year in October 2011 and has now opened up for applications from suitable individuals and organisations.
Since its inception in 1998, the awards have granted opportunities to individuals and organisations for their outstanding contribution to the development of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka and has provided a unique platform for the industry to display and benchmark local ICT talents to the business industry and the world.
The event is annually organised by the BCS The Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section (BCSSL) and it aims to provide recognition for the outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations in the sector, creates a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products and improves the standards and quality of local ICT products and services, making them more competitive in the international marketplace.
“As the only national event of its kind, the NBQSA aims to recognise the best quality ICT products and services in the country as well the outstanding achievements of individuals in the industry.
We have created new categories in order to encourage the industry and participants in those respective fields and as in the previous years, NBQSA winners will become automatically eligible for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards which will be held in Thailand in November this year,” stated NBQSA Chairman Vajeendra Kandegamage. The competition will include 18 categories this year and in addition to this, the BCS Sri Lanka Section has taken the initiative to honour the best products developed using Microsoft products and open source products as a special award.
The ICTA for the third consecutive year has joined hands with the event as national sponsor, and other sponsors include organisations such as Intel Sri Lanka, SLASSCOM, Mobitel, WSO2 and the LK Registry.
“We are very happy to be a part of this as great strides have been made by the ICT industry over the past couple of years and is now emerging as a catalytic driver of economic development and has provided a recognisable boost to the economy,” said ICTA COO, Reshan Devapura.
“It is important to take this success forward and events like the NBQSA create the right environment for future growth and spur the industry to greater heights.” Two of the most significant awards include the ICT Lifetime Achiever Award which will be awarded for the fourth consecutive year to an outstanding personality in the industry for invaluable services rendered to the development of the ICT industry for a long period of time and the ICT entrepreneurship award, where a budding entrepreneur will be recognised for his or her effort for venturing into the organisational development in an ICT organisation. The competition is open to organisations, groups and individuals in Sri Lanka for locally designed and developed ICT products and will culminate with the awards ceremony which will be held in October.
Winners of the NBQSA have gone on to repeatedly clinch awards at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards since 2006 and last year WSO2, the University of Colombo School of Computing, University of Moratuwa and Gateway College clinched four merit awards under the categories Tools and Infrastructure, e-learning and Tertiary and Secondary Student Projects respectively. Applications for the NBQSA can be obtained from the BCS Secretariat in Colombo or can be downloaded from www.nbqsasrilanka.
Award categories
