The Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) Saturday honoured 69 companies and individuals in 35 categories for their extraordinary contribution to innovations and business solutions in the ICT sector.

Information Minister Hasan Mahmud, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain and State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak handed over the awards among the winners at the Bangladesh National ICT Awards 2019.

BASIS also declared 29 of the awardee companies as champions in 27 categories for their outstanding performance, at the event held at Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden.

The 29 champions have also been selected along with seven other projects to take part in the annual Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA Awards), which will be held at Ha Long Bay in Vietnam next month.

This is the third national ICT award from BASIS. They gave away 42 awards in 2017 and 76 awards in 2018.

This year, the association received 1,175 applications and 225 of them got the opportunities to present their projects for the event.

BASIS President Syed Almas Kabir said the association is recognising the innovative and prospective ICT projects of Bangladesh.

“Through a robust judging process, the best projects have been selected for award.”

Of the awardees, Analyzen Bangladesh Ltd, a local software firm, became champion in three categories -- finance and accounting business solutions, marketing business solutions and digital marketing/advertising segments.

This is thrilling that more than 1,000 participants contested in the event, the information minister said. “The winners will bring glory for Bangladesh in the upcoming APICTA Awards.”

Digitalisation is taking place in every area of public administration as part of an initiative of the government, the state minister for public administration said.