Pakistani technology companies and startups have once again proven their potential at the 18th Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards that took place in Guangzhou, China. Competing with the top companies from 17 countries across 23 Top Awards Categories, Pakistan bagged one gold award and six silver awards, declaring the delegation third in terms of yield.
An international awards program, APICTA Awards take place annually to increase ICT awareness in the community and focusing to assist in bridging the digital divide in the Asia Pacific region. This year APICTA received 350 entries from 270 teams from 17 different countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Nepal.
The winners of P@SHA ICT Awards 2018 represented Pakistan in the 18th edition of APICTA Awards. This year, P@SHA ICT Awards changed their categories to make it more coherent with the standards followed by APICTA. All the teams from Pakistan received rigorous raining from Jawwad Ahmed Farid (CEO Alchemy Technologies Pvt Ltd, P@SHA CEC Member, and Head Judge Pakistan for APICTA), Dr Shoab Ahmed (CEO CARE Pvt Ltd, P@SHA CEC Member, and APICTA Judge), and Sultan Hamdani (CEO Maison Consulting, P@SHA CEC Member, and APICTA Judge). Other participating judges from Pakistan included Barkan Saeed (CEO Vizteck, Former Chairman P@SHA, and APICTA Judge) and Syed Ali (CEO and Founder 7Vals, P@SHA CEC Member, and APICTA Judge).
The Pakistani delegation was lead by Jehan Ara as the Member of Exco for APICTA from Pakistan. Two of the six merit award winners at APICTA this year were from The Nest I/O which is lead by Jehan Ara. Sharing the APICTA journey, she said,
“Every year we work hard to mentor and train the winners of the P@SHA ICT Awards and nominate them for APICTA. The teams put in a lot of effort knowing full well that they are representing not only their companies but also Pakistan. Each year the teams raise the flag high and make us proud. This year in Guangzhou it has been no different. Although we had a much smaller team this year due to budgetary constraints, yet 7 of our 11 teams bagged an award. These numbers are enough to prove how much talent there is in Pakistan.”
Here is a breakdown of all the awards scored by Pakistan,
Gold Award
Cipher by Avanza Solutions won the Gold Award in the Public Sector – Digital Government category. A specialized blockchain solution, Cipher enables governmental and financial institutions to utilize globalize blockchain platforms.
Merit Awards
1. KeepTruckin is an end-to-end fleet management solution that develops Electronic Logging Devices that can be used by drivers and fleet managers. The project was presented by Senior Research Engineer Ali Hassan, Research Scientist Mudassir Khan, and Research Engineer Ahmed Ali in the Cross-Category for Research & Development.
2. PriceOye, a comparison shopping website that allows users to compare prices, features and specification of mobile devices have won in the Business Services – Marketing Solutions category. The solution was pitched by CEO Adnan Shaffi and Co-Founder Awais Imran.
3. Wukla is an online legal solution that simplifies legal services and makes them accessible to a diverse set of users. The startup was presented by Co-Founder Mubariz Siddiqui in the Legal and HR category under Business Services.
4. ConnectHear, a technology startup bridging the gap between the deaf and the community, through a video-based and in-person sign language interpretation system won in Community and Inclusion – Community Services category. It was pitched by CEO Azima Dhanjee.
5. Fruges, an online marketplace for farmers to market their organic produce and deliver directly to consumers won in the Sustainability and Environment category under Community and Inclusion. It was presented by Co-Founders Syed Akber Ali and Sadaf Sajjad.
6. Fly Mail is an AI and machine learning solution that reads handwriting and creates personal fonts for writing a letter. The project won in the Junior Student Category and was pitched by Nazar Khan from Aitchison College and Sofia Khan.
“It is not really about winning. It is about the journey and how it changes the nominees, contributes to their growth and development and creates opportunities for them. The more effort they put in, the more the chances that they will perform well.”, said Jawwad Ahmed Farid.
Kudos to the winning teams for bringing pride and recognition to the Pakistani technology ecosystem, making our presence count at the international arena.
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