eKadaiBrunei.bn Shortlisted as Champion of WSIS Prizes 2022

Mr. Houlin Zhao (R) presenting the Award Certificate to YM Dk Nooraslena binti Pengiran Dato Paduka Haji Sallehudin (L)

eKadaiBrunei.bn by the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) has been shortlisted as one of the four (4) Champions in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)’s World Summit on The Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2022 in WSIS Action Line Category ICT Applications: e-business. 

The ITU, on 1 September 2021, launched the 11th Edition of the WSIS Prizes 2022 Call, a global exercise in recognising best information and communication technologies (ICT) practices that are implementing the WSIS Action Lines and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. WSIS Prizes is a unique international competition, developed to evaluate projects and activities that leverage the power of ICTs to advance sustainable development. 

Mr. Houlin Zhao (C) with Champion recipients of WSIS Prize 2022

In this year’s edition, WSIS Prizes 2022 have received 966 submissions under 18 categories of WSIS Action Lines. On 20 April 2022, ITU announced that 90 projects including eKadaiBrunei.bn were shortlisted as Champions for WSIS Prizes 2022. 18 Winners amongst these shortlisted Champions were revealed during a special ceremony at the WSIS Forum which was held on 31 May 2022 at the ITU Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. Winners and Champions were presented with an award by Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of ITU. Present to receive the Champion award on behalf of Brunei Darussalam was Yang Mulia Dayangku Nooraslena binti Pengiran Dato Paduka Haji Sallehudin, Acting Permanent Representative of Brunei Darussalam to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. 

eKadaiBrunei.bn is an online directory portal launched by AITI with the support of the Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications, Ministry of Home Affairs and Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). The portal serves as a business matching platform between local businesses in adopting and participating in eCommerce activities as well as connecting consumers with local e-Commerce providers, logistics and delivery services, and 1Kampong 1Produk (1K1P). The creation of the eKadaiBrunei.bn was as a response to the impact of first COVID-19 outbreak in Brunei Darussalam, which was aimed to enable the general public to shop online for their daily need items such as food, groceries, clothing, and many more without any physical interaction. eKadaiBrunei.bn can be accessed via www.ekadaibrunei.bn. To date, there are 47 eCommerce vendors and 14 logistics and delivery services registered to the platform since its inception on 1 April 2020. 

This year is the second time that Brunei Darussalam was shortlisted as Champion in the WSIS Prizes contest. Previously, the Nuara E2-Effective and Efficient project by local software development and IT consulting firm, Nuara Group, was named the WSIS Prizes 2022 Champion and was among the top 5 projects voted in the ICT Application: e-business category.