MCPA president U Khun Oo gives the Excellence Award to Ko Htein Lin Shwe, a member of Zawgyi Myanmar Unicode. Pic: Hein Latt Aung

THE local development group that created a free Myanmar-language Unicode font has won a new award for outstanding achievement offered by the Myanmar Computer Professional Association (MCPA).

The Zawgyi Myanmar Unicode development group won the MCPA Excellence award, at the association’s annual gathering at Myanmar Info-Tech last week.

Association secretary U Zaw Naing said the new award recognised the outstanding performances of organisations and individuals in the ICT sector.

“We see this as the equivalent of the Academy Award for the ICT sector,” he said.

Other nominees included Myanma Post and Telecommunication, Shan State MCPA, National Language Processing Lab, www.mmgeeks.org website, internet cafes, Internet journal and Zawgyi Myanmar Unicode font system. The final choice was made by executive committee members.

The Zawgyi Myanmar Unicode development group, which had been expected to win, created the Zawgyi Unicode font, which is commonly used in Myanmar language websites.

U Zaw Naing said that Zawgyi fonts, which are available for free download on www.zawgyi.net, enabled users to read web contents in the Myanmar language. The font has also contributed to the flourishing Myanmar-language blogs.

Group representative Ko Htein Lin Shwe received the award trophy from U Khun Oo, the president of the association.

MCPA is 10 years old and has more than 6000 members.