CYBERJAYA: Custodian of the MSC Malaysia initiative, the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC) has introduced a new category in the MSC-APICTA (Asia-Pacific ICT awards) this year to encourage more individuals to champion efforts to bridge the digital divide.

The e-Inclusion and e-Community category in MSC-APICTA aims to recognise people who have developed solutions or services that help include marginalised communities into the digital fold.

Niran Noor, MDeC vice-­president of branding and marketing said that introducing the category signifies MDeC’s efforts to build closer ­relationships with ICT users.

By having such a category, Niran said MDeC hopes to get more people to help others “learn how to fish” with IT.

He said even the most basic IT gadgets can help improve a person’s socio-economic standing.

One example is the e-homemakers initiative that teaches housewives about how ICT can be used to supplement their household income.

Under this initiative, ­housewives are taught to use simple gadgets like an entry-level phone to receive orders for handicrafts or cakes from buyers via SMS.

The revenue from these sales can go into their children’s education or other aspects of the household.

Nominations for the new ­category are open to any ­individual, organisation or ­business that have worked to spread the benefits of IT to under-served communities such as rural folk, the disabled and people in the low-income ­bracket.

“As long as they have made IT accessible, such as improving current technologies or advocate the use of IT for socio-economic improvement, they qualify for nominations,” he said.

The winner of the e-Inclusion and e-Community category and other winners of the local APICTA awards will represent Malaysia at the international APICTA in Jakarta this November.

APICTA will also be re-introducing the e-health ­category this year as the health industry is growing and has become an important one.

MDeC will be taking ­nominations for all 19 categories for this year’s MSC-APICTA until the end of this month.

Other categories include best start-up company, best of communications applications and best of tourism and hospitality.

For more information, go to www.mscapicta.com.my.