Phnom Penh, Oct 31 (IANS): Cambodia's 'Stop Covid QR Code', a location and contact-tracing app designed to prevent the spread of the virus, has won the Global South Covid-19 Digital Innovation Challenge award from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the country's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) announced in a statement on Sunday.

The Global South Covid-19 Digital Innovation Challenge, launched in June in collaboration with the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), sought to identify scalable, innovative and digital solutions that will enable countries, societies, communities, institutions and individuals from the Global South to deal with the cascading effects of the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

Developed by the MPTC and launched in February, the app combines three main functions including contact-tracing, quarantine control and vaccination status, the statement said.

"This is the first time that the Kingdom of Cambodia has won a world-class award in the field of telecommunications and digital technology," the Ministry statement said.

"It's a great success which is a testament to the fact that Cambodia, a developing country, has enough capacity to develop an internationally recognized digital application," it added.

The ITU received over 250 challenge applications from across the globe and the award was given to Cambodia on Friday, the statement said.

It added that as the winner, Cambodia received $20,000 for use in expanding the system and will be invited to an ITU-organised training program to share the kingdom's knowledge and experience with other countries.