A mobile app design contest jointly organised by the government and the city’s main telecom operator aims to stimulate creativity among the local ICT profession and create potential business opportunities.
Telecommunications Regulation Bureau (DSRT) representative Leong Tek Ian told a press conference held at the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre (CPTTM) in Zape that as the mobile Internet has become a development trend in information and communications technology (ICT), smartphones and mobile applications have also become part of people’s daily lives.
“It’s changed the way people get information, entertainment and how they communicate,” Leong told The Macau Post Daily, adding, “It’s brought people closer.”
According to Leong, because of the increasing use of mobile devices, mobile applications have also become a new way of communication between the government, business enterprises and citizens.
With “communication” as the theme of the competition, candidates are required to develop a mobile application that can help improve communication in different fields such as social networking, internal communication within enterprises, business transactions between companies, or communication between students, schools and parents.
According to Thursday’s presentation, the submissions will be judged on creativity (30 percent), practicality (20 percent), user-friendliness (20 percent), functionality (20 percent) and presentation skill (10 percent).
CTM Vice President of Enterprise Business Declan Leong Pui Hong said that he hoped the contest could provide a platform for people to show their IT creativity.
“Not only will this create business opportunities for app developers but also promote the development of the local ICT industry,” Declan Leong said.
CPTTM Deputy Director General Teresa Mok Iun Lei said that as smartphones have become very popular, the training centre has already provided 58 app development courses since 2011.
The competition is divided into two categories: Open and Student. The winner from the open category will get a cash prize of 25,000 patacas, a CTM fibre broadband service for 12 months and a one-year business partner contract with CTM. The winner from the student category will get a cash prize of 15,000 patacas and a training and internship opportunity at CTM.
The submission period runs from today until May 10 and winners will be announced in August.(macaunews)
