Organisers of the Sharjah Government Communication Award (GCA) have announced that the Award's judging panel has selected winners for each category, to be honoured in a ceremony at Al Majaz Amphitheatre in Sharjah on March 28, the first day of the International Government Communication Forum.

The judging process for the 13 categories was carried out using a special electronic system through which each member of the judging panel evaluated the entries individually. The evaluations and selection of the winning entries were done at a final meeting of the judges on Wednesday (March 14, 2018).

In addition, four winners were chosen for the selected categories for their positive contributions, including “Best Communication Plan for the Year of Zayed”, “Best Influential Personality on social media that serves the public interest”, “Leadership in Media “covering the Arab region and Media Personality across the Arab World.

Ibrahim Al-Abed, Advisor to the Chairman of the National Media Council and Head of the Judging Panel of the Sharjah Government Communication Award, said that the award attracted many distinctive participations, which were evaluated according to the criteria and terms and conditions of the Award.

Al-Abed explained that the number of entries increased by 40 per cent in this year's edition, reflecting the importance of the Award and its positive role in encouraging government entities to compete towards improving the government communication sector.

The Head of the Judging Panel hailed the efforts made by other judges and expressed his confidence that the government sector would continue to contribute with participations that support the Award in its quest to achieve the objectives of government communication and promote excellence.

The 5th edition of the Sharjah Government Communication Award has a total of 17 categories, 6 of which are new into this year’s edition and they fall as , the “Best Communication Plan for the Year of Zayed”, the “Best Practices in Social Responsibility – UAE”, “Best Government Application – GCC” , “Best Youth Initiative in Government Communication – GCC”, “Best Media Initiative in Government Communication GCC”, “Best Influential Personality on social media that serves the public interest – UAE”.