More than 125 awards were presented across 43 categories at the 28th National ICT Awards, held at the Monarch Imperial on the evening of Friday, 25 September.

The ceremony was held under the auspices of Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eng. Eranga Weeraratne, Hiru News reported. Over 600 guests attended, including ministry secretaries, senior officials, industry leaders and academics.

The categories and the route to APICTA

Awards covered three streams: tertiary and postgraduate students, the government and public sector, and private-sector organisations.

From the winners, 35 products and innovations were named as Sri Lanka’s nominees for the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards this year — the practical function of the event, which doubles as the national selection round for the regional competition.

The awards are organised by the National ICT Awards Trust, made up of the country’s ICT associations, with BCS, the Chartered Institute of IT, Sri Lanka Section leading. They are also known as the National Best Quality Software Awards, or NBQSA.

Individual honours

The ICT Lifetime Achievement Award went to Ruvan Ratnatunga, chairman of DMS Group, for work introducing new technologies, generating local and foreign revenue and creating employment in the sector since 1978 — a span of nearly five decades.

A special Distinguished ICT Stewardship Award was given to Geethapriya Tillekeratne for sustained contributions to the industry and to the awards themselves.

Organisers and judging

The organising committee was headed by Isuru Sirinimal, with Prof. Lasith Gunawardena chairing the National ICT Awards Board of Management. Judging this year involved 66 judges, chaired by Rasith Fernando.

Speaking at the ceremony, Weeraratne said Sri Lanka’s ICT industry needs to scale its products beyond the domestic market to deliver on the digital economy agenda, and said the government had already begun upgrading digital infrastructure to support that expansion.

Not reported

The report does not list the gold award winners by category, name the 35 APICTA nominees, or say when the regional awards will be judged.