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 for these two years. On March 30, 2022, Pakistan won the bid to host
APICTA Awards in Islamabad and following key decisions were made at the APICTA EXCO
committee meeting:

1. Ratified that the APICTA event for 2022 in Islamabad be held physically.
2. If by the event date (December 7 to 11, 2022) a member economy had governmentimposed
   travel restrictions due to COVID-19, all participants from that member economy
   could opt to attend virtually.
3. As for the Primary and Secondary Student category, it was made known to all member
   economies that the students could participate virtually or physically.
4. 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 organiser of APICTA
   2022, together with APICTA EXCO, offered the following to each economy:
   a) Visa applications made through P@SHA for all participants from every economy to ease
   the burden of applying directly, if they wish to.
   b) Assistance where required from any government department or relevant diplomatic
   channel to ease in the process of visa application.
   c) Subsidies including discounts for lodging for all judges travelling from various
   economies and in some instances, airline fare discounts.
   

Chairman APICTA, Mr. Stan Singh said, “despite all of this, Bangladesh through BASIS did
not take advantage to explore this opportunity so that all judges and participants who were
registered to attend could travel with ease and economically to Islamabad.”
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 on their request to attend
virtually. However, the APICTA EXCO were 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 was 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 was
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 with P@SHA, 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.
said, “once judging schedules and other logistics were finalised, Bangladesh withdrew completely on the eve of the event from the awards program, without giving any notice whatsoever and silently, which caused chaos and wreaked havoc in the scheduling causing the host economy to re-schedule the entire program, and this was against the harmony of APICTA.”
Mr. Singh continued to say, “this action taken by Bangladesh was reckless, unacceptable,
and untenable to APICTA EXCO and against the spirit of APICTA. The actions from BASIS
has never happened in the history of APICTA and we were all profoundly upset over this
matter. At the APICTA EXCO meeting in Islamabad, this matter was discussed and every
EXCO member at that meeting felt such action taken by BASIS was truly reckless,
unacceptable and a decision was taken to give BASIS the opportunity to explain their
actions. The response from BASIS was assigned to an APICTA EXCO sub-committee
ONLY to investigate the facts and carry out due diligence on the matter. The sub-committee
shared their findings and recommendations to the APICTA EXCO who then unanimously
decided to suspend BASIS as a member of APICTA for a period of two (2) years. In
addition, in the past we never had any issues arising with any of the BASIS leadership”
In addition, APICTA EXCO is compelled to address and clarify some of the statements
which have been circulating in the public domain:
i. Nepal had requested a leave of absence for a period from APICTA following a major
earthquake and the APICTA EXCO accepted their request and will welcome them back
when they are ready to do so and APICTA wishes them well.
ii. APICTA welcomes any new member economies, and several economies within and
outside the Asia Pacific region have shown keen interest in APICTA membership. The
EXCO reviews each application on a case-to-case basis.
iii. The core APICTA goals and objectives are always maintained – that is, promoting
growth in every member economy and providing them with every opportunity to
showcase the best examples of ICT innovations in government, businesses, community,
and individuals alike.
Over the last few years, APICTA has introduced other elements to the eco-system of
APICTA by adding initiatives like Business Matchmaking, Students Exchange, Startups
Networking etc. In addition, enabling all participants to experience the culture of the host
economy via wonderful social and tourism opportunities whilst providing and facilitating
networking and business opportunities for them, and as the technology landscape changes,
APICTA will continue in its endeavour to make changes to add to the value chain.

Mr. Inserra concluded by saying, “since its inception, every economy has had the
opportunity to host the APICTA event and Bangladesh did so successfully in 2017. It is
important to note that this suspension does not apply to participants from Bangladesh,
whom we strongly felt were deprived the opportunity in Islamabad. As such they shall have
the same opportunity to participate in the upcoming APICTA Awards 2023 & 2024. APICTA
requires that all entries must come through a representative body of the member economy.
Since BASIS, as the incumbent member body representative is suspended, we will explore
other options with the assistance of the IT Ministry to ensure active participation from
Bangladeshi students, startups, IT companies and experienced category judges.”
APICTA will not be making any further comments regarding this matter