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| Sunday, 3 October 2004 |
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Recognising IT ICT as a profession is not recognised in Sri Lanka and this has lead to brain drain therefore people engaged in the IT industry are working towards recognising the IT profession as the industry of the 21st century. These were the comments made by the secretary of British Computer Society (BCS) Sri Lanka section Bimal Yainna. BCS the largest ICT professional body in the world with more than 50,000 members has over 2000 members in the Sri Lanka section alone which is the largest outside UK in terms of membership. The vision of BCS is to make IT the profession of the 21st century. We together with BCS UK will work towards making the vision of BCS a reality, Yainna said. BCS Sri Lanka branch has been organising the National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) an event intended to honour significant technological developments and innovations of software developed in Sri Lanka. It was inaugurated in 1998 and has already held five succesful events since its inception. This year the NBQSA will be held on October 8 incorporating 13 categories representing each sector of the industry. Last year we tied up this program with other international awarding programs such as Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Awards(APICTA), Asia Oceania Computer Industry Organisations (ASOCIO) and World Information Technology Summit (WITSA) to benchmark as well as showcase our products, he said. The objectives of NBQSA are to provide recognition to outstanding achievements of individuals, organisations of the country that have developed high quality software products, provide a window to gain international recognition of local software and ICT products, improve the quality of local products and services to meet international standards identifying young talent and provide them with the opportunity to develop their skills in IT. Yainna said "last year we sent a contingent of 45 representing 20 companies for the APICTA and won awards in thirteen categories including gold, silver and bronze awards. This December APICTA will be held in Hong Kong. Emprise IT pvt Ltd was the winner of the communication category and the overall gold medal winner." Chief Executive Officer of Emprise IT Nayana Serasinghe, a winner of APICTA last year speaking of the benefits said "It gave us a platform to benchmark our products within the industry and the country got to know about the company, At an industry level the business community got to know about the company. Also It was an opportunity to network and share our resources with participants from other countries. Serasinghe said that India became a super- power in IT because IT companies were recognised within the country. Therefore recognition is vital to improve our products. Yainna said that NBQSA will be broadbased to amalgamate commercial tertiary and students awards this year. (SG) |
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