KUALA LUMPUR: Five Malaysian companies and a Malaysian teenager                                                                                       
bagged five of the 11 awards at the 2001 Asia Pacific                                                                                                 
Information & Communications Technology Awards on Friday night.                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                      
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Abroad Badawi                                                                                               
presented the awards at a gala dinner at the Palace of Golden                                                                                         
Horses Hotel here.                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                      
The awards were to recognise ICT innovators and entrepreneurs                                                                                         
in the region.                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                      
Multimedia University took the Best of Education Applications                                                                                         
awards, beating nine other contenders with its Multimedia                                                                                             
Learning System, a web-based intelligent courseware delivery                                                                                          
engine utilising multimedia to enhance e-teaching and learning                                                                                        
processes.                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                      
In Communications Applications cat gory, REDtone Technology Sdn                                                                                       
Bhd beat six other companies to win the award for its REDtone                                                                                         
Communications Server, a next generation communications server                                                                                        
built to either replace or complement the traditional business                                                                                        
phone system. The system was introduced in Hanover, Germany, at                                                                                       
the CeBit 2000 and later launched in Malaysia last November.                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                      
Malaysian company IRIS Corporation Berhad won the E-Government                                                                                        
& Services category for its M-Satu Multipurpose smart card                                                                                            
which can replace the functions of several cards. Its software                                                                                        
and hardware, encryption and other security features makes the                                                                                        
IRIS smart card the most secure.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                      
Malaysia also bagged the award for security with the V-Buster                                                                                         
Antivirus Software by Looi Hoong Thoong, which provides the                                                                                           
ultimate solution in the protection and recovery of critical                                                                                          
data and is the first Asian programme to be marketed worldwide.                                                                                       
It is also the only programme in the world that can recover a                                                                                         
crashed and inaccessible hard disk.                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                      
In the Tourism category, Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd                                                                                         
(CAT) took the award for its Virtual Malaysia project which                                                                                           
promotes Malaysia as a tourist destination besides providing an                                                                                       
integrated marketing platform for local companies to promote                                                                                          
and sell their products and services globally.                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                      
Malaysian teenager Reza Fahmi Razali won the Student Project -                                                                                        
Primary, with his teenager's portal terato. com one that                                                                                              
focuses on the interest of Malaysian teens.