Brunei Gears Up for APICTA 2023

Nine (9) teams comprising of winners and the first merit recipients of the Brunei ICT Awards (BICTA) 2023 will be representing Brunei Darussalam in the prestigious ICT competition, Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, in Hong Kong from 4 to 8 December 2023.  They are:  

Primary school 

1. Ma’had Islam Brunei with its ICT product: ‘Mr Grabbish’
2. Ma’had Islam Brunei with its ICT product: ‘Brugency’

Secondary School 

1. Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College with its ICT product: ‘Berasap’
2. Sayyidina Ali Secondary School, Kuala Belait with its ICT product: ‘Mr Bin’

Tertiary School 

1. Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), with its product: ‘River Vigilance (RV)
2. Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), with its product: ‘CareerBN’

Industry  

1. IT Protective Security Services Sdn Bhd (ITPSS), with its product: ‘iDentiti’.
2. NiAT Sdn Bhd, with their products ‘MataGrid powered by OBSERVE’ and ‘OBSERVE’.
3. ODE Aquaculture and Agriculture Company, with its product: ‘AIquatic Tech’. 

Aside from the competition, the APICTA participants will have the chance to join the student and business networking sessions coordinated by the host economy that promotes collaboration and networking opportunities between the participants.  

Brunei Darussalam’s participation in APICTA Awards 2023 is led by Siti Zaraura Binti Haji Mohammad, Acting Assistant Chief Executive, Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI), as Brunei Darussalam’s Executive Committee (ExCo) member in APICTA. Pengiran Sarimah Binti Pengiran Haji Abdul Latiff, Chairwoman of InfoCom Federation Brunei (IFB), and Hajah Ismawati Binti Haji Ismail, Senior Manager, AITI, who are also Brunei Darussalam’s ExCo members, will be joining this event as APICTA judges as well. 

The delegation also included Dr Yong Chee Tuan of Yi Ecomodern Solutions Sdn Bhd as APICTA Advisory Judge and three (3) other judges, namely Dr Sophiana Chua Binti Abdullah of A Vision A Day Company, Pengiran Khairi Bin Pengiran Haji Metussin of Mindtrex Academy and Reza Faizal Bin Mohd Nor of Folec Communications Sdn Bhd. 

Present to send off the delegation at the Brunei International Airport were Pengiran Dato Seri Paduka Haji Mohammad Tashim bin Pengiran Haji Hassan, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Religious Affairs; Ir. Awang Haji Mohammad Nazri Bin Haji Mohammad Yusof, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC); Awang Haji Hairul Mohd Daud Bin Haji Abdul Karim, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Infocommunications), MTIC; Ir. Haji Jailani Bin Haji Buntar, Chief Executive, AITI; senior officers from MTIC, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Education and AITI, as well as members of IFB. 

BICTA 2023 Awards, which was recently held on 25^th September 2023, is the key highlight of BICTA 2023 which was launched for participation on 4^th April 2023.  BICTA is an annual competition co-organised by MTIC, AITI and IFB to stimulate innovation and creativity in the ICT industry amongst individual, students and associations including SMEs.  

Brunei Darussalam’s participation in the APICTA Awards is part of a continuous initiative to further develop the nation’s ICT sector by encouraging individuals, students and businesses to compete at the international level. Since the year 2008, Brunei has achieved four (4) winning awards and twenty-nine (29) merit awards in APICTA. 

For more information on BICTA and APICTA, please visit BICTA website at www.bicta.gov.bn as well as the BICTA official IG “bicta.bn” and APICTA website at www.apicta.org.