THE PHILIPPINES, MARCH 5, 2012: The Philippines’ leading wireless services provider Smart Communications received four finalist spots in the recently concluded 17th Annual Global Mobile Awards of the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA), the only Philippine telecommunications company to achieve the feat. United Kingdom’s Orange and United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat also produced four finalists each.
Smart earned nominations for “Kabalikat sa Kalikasan” (Green Mobile Award), “Strengthening Disaster Preparedness of Southern Leyte” (Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations), SHINE (Mobile Health Innovation), and Hapinoy.
“We are proud to make this mark for Smart and for the Philippines,” said Orlando B. Vea, chief wireless advisor of Smart. “This reinforces our commitment to actively pursue relevant innovations that will deliver benefits to our country and people.”
“Kabalikat sa Kalikasan” is the collective name for all of Smart’s environmental initiatives,which include managing, reducing, and offsetting carbon emissions through practicing environmentally sound practices. Smart won the inaugural GSMA Green Mobile Award in 2009.
The first “cohesive attempt” to use SMS for climate change awareness in the country, Strengthening Disaster Preparedness of Southern Leyte is a communications system among disaster risk management bodies and other groups. It was used to mobilize resources during natural calamities, and also to expand disaster preparedness and awareness between communities in Southern Leyte.
SHINE, or Secure Health Information Network and Exchange, is a private-public partnership with the Philippine Department of Health enabling doctors, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners to access an electronic health information system to find and retrieve records, refer patients to other facilities, and generate reports.
On the other hand, Hapinoy’s is the Philippines’ first sari-sari store chain, with over 10,000 outlets nationwide. Store owners – all of whom are female – have access to the best bargain goods, management tools, steady capital from microfinance institutions, extra income via Smart electronic loading, and the Smart Money Center (SMC) business through a recent partnership with Microventures Inc.
More than 600 entries were submitted to the GSMA awards committee and were presented at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the mobile industry’s annual gathering of around 60,000 senior industry leaders, executives, media and analysts. The MWC was held at Barcelona, Spain this year.
Established in 1996, the Global Mobile Awards is the most highly sought after awards in the global communications industry.
