Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Executive Committee (EXCO) has suspended BASIS IT Association for 2 years due to the lack of cooperation, noncompliance to the clear directive of the EXCO regarding the requirement for participants to attend in person, and the disruption caused due to their late stage withdrawal of the APICTA Awards program held December 7 – 11, 2022 in Islamabad, Pakistan.
APICTA was not immune to the global impact of COVID-19 and as a result, no in-person APICTA events were held in 2020 and 2021. A joint virtual award program was held for the very first time in these two years.
On March 30, 2022, Pakistan won the bid to host APICTA Awards in Islamabad and the following key decisions were made at the APICTA EXCO committee meeting:
- Ratified that the APICTA event for 2022 in Islamabad be held physically.
- If by the event date (December 7 to 11, 2022) a member economy had government-imposed travel restrictions due to COVID-19, all participants from that member economy could opt to attend virtually.
- As for the Primary and Secondary Student categories, it was made known to all member economies that the students could participate virtually or physically.
- With this context, several meetings were held including a crucial meeting on November 8, 2022, where Bangladesh was represented by BASIS.
At the meeting, the host economy, Pakistan, through P@SHA, the organizer of APICTA 2022, together with APICTA EXCO, offered the following to each economy:
- Visa applications are made through P@SHA for all participants from every economy to ease the burden of applying directly if they wish to.
- Assistance where required from any government department or relevant diplomatic channel to ease the process of visa application.
- Subsidies include discounts for lodging for all judges traveling from various economies and in some instances, airline fare discounts.
On November 19, 2022, APICTA Secretariat received a letter from BASIS expressing in the letter that they were still “waiting” for APICTA EXCO’s response to their request to attend virtually.
However, the APICTA EXCO was confused over this strange and lapsed request as the matter was resolved at the November 8, 2022 meeting, but nevertheless, APICTA EXCO responded soonest on November 20, 2022, expressing to BASIS that there were no actions or decisions pending from APICTA EXCO and that it was not only made clear at the November 8 meeting of the decision but reiterated the decision in that, unless there were any travel restrictions due to COVID-19, all participants (excluding students) must attend in person.
BASIS was also offered additional time to register entries, even though the entry date into the judging system was already closed.
Despite all of the support that was offered, there was no response from BASIS after the email which was sent from APICTA EXCO on November 20, 2022.
On November 21 & 22, 2022, the APICTA Secretariat, wrote to every participant from all economies respectively, informing them that unless their economy still had travel restrictions due to COVID-19, that physical attendance was mandatory.
In the same correspondence, it was reiterated that Primary and Secondary Students Categories could participate virtually. In the days leading up to the Awards, some of the participants from Bangladesh were actually applying for Pakistan visas and making travel plans to Islamabad.
However, they informed P@SHA that BASIS requested them not to attend physically but rather virtually because APICTA EXCO had agreed for Bangladesh to do so.
BASIS also informed the students not to attend APICTA even virtually. APICTA EXCO states categorically that at no point did APICTA EXCO agree to participants from Bangladesh, (apart from the Student Category) to attend virtually.
APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Alliance), is an association of ICT communities nominated by member economies in the region, who come together in the spirit of collaboration, forming a cooperative network to promote technology innovation, and encouraging the development of indigenous ICT solutions for the global market via an annual awards program.
APICTA’s 16 member economies work together to assist in bridging the digital divide amongst our member countries which include Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.
