PRESENTER AND SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Promote Mandarin Council

The Promote Mandarin Council supports the national objective of building a community of Singaporeans who have a strong command of Mandarin as well as an appreciation and understanding of Chinese culture, tradition and history.

In 1994, the Committee to Promote the Use of Mandarin was formed as a general policy to engage members of various communities to lead and drive the Speak Mandarin Campaign. The committee, renamed the Promote Mandarin Council in 1998, is led by a chairman from the private sector and supported by a Secretariat, all appointed by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA).

The current Council is chaired by Mr Seow Choke Meng, Executive Vice President of Cultural Industry Promotion at Singapore Press Holdings, and is composed of 20 members, including representatives from both the public and private sector.

The National Library Board is appointed as Secretariat by MICA to plan, manage, and execute the programmes and events of the Campaign, based on the advice, guidance and recommendations of the Council.

Asian Civilisations Museum

Located by the historic Singapore River, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) traces the cultural roots of modern Singaporeans. A descendant of the Raffles Museum, it features a diverse collection from Southeast Asia, South Asia, China and the Islamic world of West Asia. Gallery displays are complemented by interactive hosts and multimedia displays.

In addition, the Singapore River Gallery tells the moving story of immigrants who lived and worked on the Singapore River, the source of Singapore’s rich multi-culturalism.

The first and only museum in the region with a focus on Asian cultures, the ACM also presents a programme of changing special exhibitions throughout the year.

For more information, please visit http://www.acm.org.sg.

Besta DigiTech Pte Ltd

Besta DigiTech Pte Ltd was founded in Singapore in 1990. As the distributor for Besta Electronic Dictionaries and related products. Besta DigiTech is responsible for managing and marketing the Inventec Group's self-owned brand "Besta" in Singapore and Indonesia.

Over the past eighteen years, the "Besta" brand of electronic dictionaries has focused on sales to Chinese speaking areas around the world and Besta DigiTech has successfully positioned its product as the leading brand of electronic dictionary in the Singapore market today.

Keeping pace with the world’s demand for technical innovation, Besta DigiTech has continued in its mission of being the first to pioneer the use of electronic dictionaries in Singapore. In line with this mission, Besta DigiTech has successfully become the leading brand and tool for language learners. With the emergence of such tools as an effective technological device, Besta DigiTech has penetrated the business, educational and consumer world in Taiwan, Malaysia, USA, Australia, Singapore and many other countries. The electronic dictionary successfully bypasses the use of traditional printed dictionaries to provide an advance reference tool and learning device.

Infused within its small footprint, this powerful device acts as a handy and convenient version of a standard dictionary, encyclopaedia, language translator, media player and storage device. This ability to access millions of words, definitions, and related resources within seconds makes such portable devices a godsend in almost all situations when instant referencing is required. The compactness of the gadget, combined with the ever essential Oxford Dictionary, Cambridge and Britannica Encyclopaedias is the essence of what makes each Besta device a powerful cross reference tool.

As the only product of its kind with these added features, many have tried to emulate our products, but none have managed to encroach anywhere near us. The Besta electronic dictionary outclasses about 70% of the market, making Besta a leading brand.

The invention was first introduced to the Chinese-speaking community, aimed particularly at children, students and working adults. With continued development through the years, Besta has developed newer and better dictionaries, with Thai, Korean, Malay and Japanese dictionaries.

For more information, please visit http://www.besta.com.sg.

GistXL Technology Pte Ltd

GistXL Technology Pte Ltd develops, customizes and manages software and services that allow governments, corporations and individuals to overcome language barriers and reap the full advantages of globalization. Its assistive technologies help language learners and the visually impaired acquire and use language through transforming text data into usable formats, through audio-enablement, romanisation, translation, part-of-speech tagging, etc.

For more information, please visit http://www.gistxl.com/.

Jetstar Asia Airways Pte Ltd

Jetstar Asia is part of the Jetstar Group, a value based, low fares network of airlines operating in the leisure and value based markets.

Jetstar’s mission is to offer all day, every day low fares to enable more people to fly to more places, more often.

Based in Singapore and operating from the award-winning Changi Airport (Terminal 1), Jetstar Asia first took to the skies in December 2004.

In 2005, Singapore airline Valuair became the sister airline of Jetstar Asia in Singapore, focusing on destinations within Indonesia.

Jetstar Asia currently operates over 400 weekly flights to 25 destinations across 15 countries and territories in the Asia Pacific region.