The 20th Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Alliance (APICTA) Awards results have been announced online. Hong Kong won the highest number of Winner awards among the 14 competing member economies, with 15 entries winning six Winner and 11 Merit awards. Two Government-led anti-epidemic entries, namely Achieving Zero-COVID with the Integrated Hong Kong Digital Health Platform and the StayHomeSafe home quarantine monitoring system, were among the winners, which proves that the proactive use of ýÿinnovation and technology by Hong Kong has played a pivotal role in the fight against the epidemic.

     Fifteen Hong Kong teams competed in this year's APICTA Awards. The following projects from Hong Kong shone in the competition and won among 309 entries:
 
Winner awards
 

• Multilingual Automatic Speech Recognition System for BFSI by Fano Labs Limited (Business Services category - Finance & Accounting)
• KnitWarm by Fung Fat Knitting Manufactory Ltd/KnitWarm Limited (Inclusion category - Health & Wellbeing)
• Achieving Zero-COVID with the Integrated Hong Kong Digital Health Platform by Food and Health Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China/Hospital Authority (Public Sector and Government category - Government & Citizen Services)
• Anti-Contagion AI Suite by WildFaces Technology Limited (Start Up of the Year category)
• Neuron Smart Building Digital Platform - Empowering Building Sustainability and Wellbeing through AI by Arup (Technology category - Big Data)
• Multilingual Automatic Speech Recognition System for BFSI by Fano Labs Limited (Technology category - AI)

Merit awards
 

• "e+" series services by eft Payments (Asia) Limited (Business Services category - Finance & Accounting)
• StayHomeSafe by Compathnion Technology Limited/Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre Limited (Inclusion category - General)
• StayHomeSafe by Compathnion Technology Limited/Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre Limited (Technology category - IoT)
• Anti-Contagion AI Suite by WildFaces Technology Limited (Industrial category - Transport & ICT Networks/Com)
• Neuron Smart Building Digital Platform - Empowering Building Sustainability and Wellbeing through AI by Arup (Industrial category - General)
• Elderly Communication Assistant by Ying Wa College (Student Junior category)
• Trendy Toilet by Lai King Catholic Secondary School (Student Senior category)
• Octo-BUS by Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Secondary School (Student Senior category)
• AI Robot Guardians of the Elderly by Department of Information Technology, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Lee Wai Lee) (Tertiary Student category - Consumer & Community)
• All Screens by Department of Information Technology, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Lee Wai Lee) (Tertiary Student category - Consumer & Community)
• blutech.io Smart Washroom AIoT Solution by Blutech IoT Limited (Start Up of the Year category)

     The Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Victor Lam, congratulated the winning teams today (December 16) and said, "The results of the Hong Kong team were very encouraging and the performance of the participating teams from all sectors is outstanding. Showing creativity in all aspects, the projects have contributed to building Hong Kong into a smart city and improving citizens' quality of life. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS). As an Executive Committee Member of APICTA, the HKCS facilitated outstanding projects to participate in the APICTA Awards and bring honour to Hong Kong.

     "Hong Kong's projects have won numerous awards in international competitions. This not only affirms the Government's efforts in promoting the development of innovation and technology (I&T) and STEM education, but also shows that Hong Kong is on the cusp of a golden era for I&T development. I encourage all sectors to seize the opportunity and continue to give full play to their talents to contribute to Hong Kong's development into an international I&T hub together."       

     To help non-governmental organisations (NGOs) extend their reach and students to move beyond local boundaries, the Government has sponsored students and NGO representatives to take part in different international competitions. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer led the Hong Kong delegation to participate in the APICTA Awards held in physical form in different regions in previous years. "When the pandemic situation stabilises, I look forward to leading the Hong Kong delegation to participate physically in this major annual competition to be held overseas next year," Mr Lam added.

     Aiming at stimulating information and communications technology (ICT) innovation and creativity, facilitating technology transfer, and offering business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and angel investors, the annual APICTA Awards is run by APICTA member economies in rotation. The event offers networking and product introduction opportunities to participating ICT innovators and entrepreneurs. The APICTA Awards this year was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Ends/Thursday, December 16, 2021
Issued at HKT 15:13

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