NBQSA Awards for Local ICT talent

National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) 2009, the 11th Annual NBQSA competition was announced recently by the BCS Sri Lanka section, in association with the British Computer Society (UK). NBQSA is the only national competition in Sri Lanka recognising and honouring exceptional local ICT achievements and significant technological advancements in the country. Since 1998, the NBQSA has given opportunities to individuals and organisations that have made outstanding contributions to the development of the ICT Industry in Sri Lanka, to display and benchmark their products. Over the years, the event itself has grown in recognition both locally and internationally. Today, it serves as a vessel to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products, enabling them to successfully compete in the global market.

'This year's NBQSA specially hopes to bring some relief to the software industry in Sri Lanka, which is still fighting to overcome the impact of the global economic crisis' said Vajeendra Samanpriya, Chairman of the NBQSA Organising Committee and Member of the BCS Sri Lanka Executive Committee. This year NBQSA 2009 competition will cover 16 categories of ICT products and projects ranging from Application and Infrastructure Tools to In House Applications, with Gold, Silver and Bronze awards being presented to winners in each category. In addition, the BCS Sri Lanka section is proud to announce the addition of a new award category this year, where the best application developed using Closed Source and Open Source products would be recognised. The Tertiary category is open to students from Sri Lankan Tertiary Education Institutions. Each year, the judging panel is selected based on their ICT knowledge and experience from diverse disciplines such as IT, Engineering, Management, Accounting and Marketing. It would include persons from both the private sector and the academia, selected to ensure unbiased and objective evaluation as well as confidentiality. Samanpriya invited local ICT innovators to take part and win opportunity for international recognition through Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA), an International Awards Programme initiated to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the Digital Divide. The NBQSA events schedule commences with the launch and call for applications on the 17th of July, with the nominees' and judges' briefings to be held on 4th and 6th of August respectively and concluding with the Gala Awards Ceremony on 16th of October 2009.