The National Association of Private ICT Companies (ANCPTI) announced the opening of the eighth contest of websites WebTop on January 27, Info-Prim Neo reports. The contest was launched in 2001. It is promoting the use of Internet as a modern and effective means of communication, learning, presentation and promotion, as a space for doing business, online service, data exchange and opinions expression, Dumitru Chitoroaga, grant manager of Soros-Moldova Foundation, told a news conference. According to the ANCPTI director general Ana Chirita, the eighth WebTop contest includes ten categories, namely: Public Administration Bodies (Local and Central), Business, Entertainment/Virtual Communities, Education and Science, Arts and Culture, Mass-Media, Health and Sports, Personal Sites/Blogs, Civil Society, and Web Design. Participants can register in one or two categories. The registration fee for the categories Business, Entertainment/Virtual Communities, Mass-Media and Web Design is 500 lei. There is no fee for the other categories. Dumitru Chitoroaga said this minimal fee is charged in order to filter out the websites that do not deserve taking part in the contest. A jury composed of ICT experts will assess the competing sites according to such criteria as design, content, functionality and general impression. The deadline for applications is February 24, 2010. The winners of the eighth WebTop contest will be selected on March 11. The award ceremony will take place on March 31. The seventh contest brought together 250 websites that competed in 11 categories, while the sixth contest - 331 websites that competed in 14 categories. WebTop is organized by the ANCPTI with support from the United Nations Development Program and Soros-Moldova Foundation.