Malaysia's APICTA Awards goes on virtually, celebrating 27 winners

• 104 entries submitted in 2020, under 14 categories with 38 judges from all sectors
• Big winners include Agmo Studio, Hartalega, OrangeFIN, Chong Hwa High School

THE MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICT Awards (MSC Malaysia APICTA) recently witnessed 27 winners and merit recipients in a ceremony hosted virtually by National Tech Association of Malaysia (Pikom).

The awards, the 21st in its history, seeks to provide recognition to outstanding achievements by individuals, students, entrepreneurs, small medium enterprises (SMEs) and organisations with operations in Malaysia, which have contributed to the development of the MSC Malaysia initiatives and building applications and services for the benefit of Malaysia.

This annual awards programme provides an opportunity and an ideal environment for individuals and companies to gain local, regional and international exposure through on-going promotional activities, and through participation at the international Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA), Pikom said in a statement.

“With 21 years of track record, this annual programme has been the platform to cultivate a steady stream of innovators, technopreneurs, thinkers and visionaries, with the opportunity to reach regional and international exposure as well,” said Danny Lee, chairman of Pikom.

Lee said this was the first time the awards ceremony was conducted entirely virtually, from submission of entries, judging process, final presentation pitch and the awards ceremony itself.

A total of 104 entries were submitted last year under 14 categories with 38 judges from across all sectors including the academia, industry and the corporate sector.

Among the big winners were Agmo Studio Sdn Bhd for Vote2U under the Inclusion & Community Services category; Hartalega NGC Sdn Bhd under the Industrial Category; OrangeFIN Asia for in the Cross Category Start-Up; and Chong Hwa Independent High School in the Senior Student Category.

Stan Singh, the chair of MSC Malaysia APICTA, said: “Despite the current the pandemic, the show did not stop but did it virtually from the start to the awards ceremony. The judges volunteered and took time off to be engaged and made it happen.”

Malaysia has also adopted the entire judging and compliance framework that was based on the proven APICTA International Judging System, of which Stan is also the chairman of APICTA International. 

“Entries from the MSC Malaysia APICTA, which qualified and fulfilled all criteria would know what is required of them to compete in APICTA International with 16 other countries in the finals,” Stan explained.

All Winners of the MSC Malaysia APICTA 2020 will move on to compete at the International APICTA event and ceremony, which will be announced later this year.

MSC Malaysia APICTA is jointly organised with Malaysia Digital Economy Development (MDEC). Malaysia won the bid to host APICTA International 2020 in Kuala Lumpur but due to the pandemic lockdowns across various economies, the event was postponed and has now been pushed to 2021.