Bangkok--25 Jun--In House Agency Board Room 4, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center: The program entitled Thailand ICT Awards 2008 is now launched opening for software contest application now until July 15, 2008. SIPA emphasizes that the significance of this program is not only for competition, but also to acquire certified software and new innovations for markets while continuously pushing forward. ATCI believes that Thai software has a chance to be the first place on Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards in Indonesia. Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) (Public Organization) together with The Association of Thai ICT Industry (ATCI) organizes the national software contest or Thailand ICT Awards while is now opening for software contest application from entrepreneurs, programmers, university students until July 15, 2008. The contest will be divided into 15 classes. Dr. Rungruang Limchoopatipa, President, Software Industry Promotion Agency (Public Organization) talked about the Thailand ICT Awards program that “To create Thai software industry competitiveness to increase the economic value and enable the country to more software revenue is the vision of SIPA. Thailand ICT Awards or TICTA is considered another way to enhance the quality of Thai software and earn more income for software entrepreneurs and the nation in the future. According to previous TICTA, the software joined in the contests were qualified and were considered as innovations, especially Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards which resulted in the recognition of Thai software regarding quality and standard which brings reputation to the nation and software industry.” “Thailand ICT Awards is one of methods to carry forward Thai software entrepreneurs to develop their works and at the same time is also an opportunity for quality software to be promoted and developed continuously. The contest participants will gain experience and many advantages from variety of activities from the program. The significance of the program is not only the contest but also a method to expand economic results. Moreover, SIPA is ready provide marketing and public relation supports; such as business matching program, arranging road show in international markets in global and regional exhibitions, namely CEBIT or CommuniAsia or arranging marketing activities together with Department of Export Promotion. All of the mentioned activities will continue the software business and extend the software market for Thai software entrepreneurs that will finally lead to software industry development for the country.” Dr. Rungruang added. Mr. Sutee Satanasathaporn, General Secretariat of The Association of Thai ICT Industry and Executive Committee of Asia Pacific ICT (Alliance) Awards said “For Thailand ICT Awards this year, the application is opened from now on until July 15, and the contest will be divided into 15 classes. The requirements for contesters are as follows; being an organization, agency or a person who develops software to utilize within the organization or for distribution, and the organization must be of more than 49% of Thai shareholders. The software must be originally developed by the contester and can be used in the real environment. Each contester can send not more than 3 of his/her works and not more than 2 works in each class.” “The referees will use same standard of judging criterion as same as a contest in Asia-Pacific region. Winner of each class will be supported to participate in Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards. We will arrange the training program, preparation and practice for presentation techniques. At this time, we are still coordinating with Indonesia, the host to organize the business matching between Thai contesters, Thai referees and international contesters and referees in order to create business network in Asia-Pacific region.” Mr. Sutee explained. Mr. Sutee also added “We would like to invite entrepreneurs, software developers, students and university students to send their quality and interesting works to join this program. According to previous Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, Thailand is the 2nd country that receive most awards; 3 winner prizes and 3 runner-ups. This can show the potential of works’ quality and contesters’ preparation. Besides, the committee has been analyzing the pros and cons of the work according to judging criterion and provides suggestions to contesters. This leads to receiving more Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards in every year. This year will be the golden chance for Thailand to advance to first place. ATCI is now ready to carry forward and promote all of the contesters.” Mr. Apinand Dabpetch from Larngear Technology Co., Ltd., the winner in research and development class of Thailand ICT Awards 2007 and Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2007 said “At this time, our company has developed the software that we sent to this contest to a 3D learning software and will be launched in the market soon. This software catches many attentions from schools and the company receives commercial advantages and public relations. Thanks to winning Thailand ICT Awards, our product has been known in a very short time, and the prize is also the obvious mark for the quality and product’s standard.” For additional information, please contact: In House Agency Company Limited Public Relations Department Tel. 0-2294-7833-5