MUMBAI: Digital cinema chain UFO Moviez received the Global Entrepolis Singapore Award 2007 (GES Award) in Singapore. Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Republic of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong presented the award to UFO Moviez vice chairman Raaja Kanwar and founder and executive director Sanjay Gaikwad.

The Global Entrepolis Singapore Award, honoring the Technopreneur of the Year in the Asia-Pacific region, is co-organized by the Wall Street Journal Asia in association with the Global Entrepolis Singapore. Amongst 265 entries from applicants from 16 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region this year, UFO Moviez was short listed as one of the six finalists and was eventually honored with the GES Award.

Kanwar said, “In less than two years, UFO Moviez has become the world’s largest satellite based digital cinema chain with over 1000 theatres receiving all movies first day, first show. This award is a reaffirmation of what we have always believed in – empowering the global cinema industry digitally, while being environment friendly and also combating piracy. Very soon, UFO’s footprint will cover South East Asia including Singapore, UAE and Europe.“

Added Gaikwad, “The challenge for us lay in introducing an untried and untested technology in India with no previous benchmarks. Not only just the technology part of it, we even had to invent a new pay per show business model, which was unheard of in the Indian context. Thanks to the indomitable team UFO, we met squarely all the issues and made a resounding success of it.”

In the past, SiBiono GeneTech from China was given the GES Award 2006 while Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. (HKBN) has won the 2005 Global Entrepolis Singapore Award for its ultra-fast residential broadband service.

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