Indonesia and Bangladesh Re-elected to Head the General Conference
Indonesia and Bangladesh have been re-elected President and Vice-President respectively of the 13th AIBD General Conference held on 14 August 2014 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Re-elected by a majority vote, the two member countries will serve the body for an additional two-year term with effect from August 2014.
Indonesia and Bangladesh have been re-elected President and Vice-President respectively of the 13th AIBD General Conference held on 14 August 2014 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Re-elected by a majority vote, the two member countries will serve the body for an additional two-year term with effect from August 2014.
Also re-elected to the AIBD Executive Board were three member countries who had earlier served the Institute for two years. Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka garnered the highest number of votes to serve for two more years. The Board’s newest member country is the Philippines.
The incumbents that remain at the Executive board are member countries from Cambodia, France, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.
As Indonesia’s representative, Mrs. Dra. Rosarita Niken Widiastuti, President of the AIBD General Conference, who is also President Director of Radio Republik Indonesia, thanked the members for their continued support and promised to help AIBD grow stronger in the changing media landscape.
A major announcement at the General Conference was the decision of the Republic of Korea to host the Asia Media Summit in 2016.
Acknowledging that the Asia Media Summit has become a premiere gathering in Asia-Pacific, Korea is ready to host the two-day conference, Mr. Sanghun Lee, Director of the Multilateral Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Republic of Korea, announced before members of the General Conference.
Mr. Lee said Korea would be ready to welcome a broad participation of AIBD members and partners, and to ensure an informative, insightful and enjoyable experience during the AMS 2016.
AIBD and Malaysia as host of AMS 2015 in Kuala Lumpur plan to introduce for the first time a roundtable discussion among Ministers of Information and Broadcasting in the region.
“A lot of work will need to be done to get this going,” Binyuan said.
Dato Adilah Shek Omar, Director of the Tun Abdul Razak Broadcasting and Information Institute Malaysia (IPPTAR), invited members to participate in the AMS 2015 to be held from 26-28 May.
She said that the Ministry of Communication and Multimedia will host the event and invited member countries to join the Kuala Lumpur conference and cherish fully the truly Asia experience.
The General Conference authorised AIBD to begin the recruitment process as soon as possible following the resignation of AIBD Director Yang Binyuan. The process may take between three and six months before a new Director starts working in Kuala Lumpur. AIBD is expected to publish soon the requirements and process of recruitment.
Binyuan formally announced his resignation effective 15 September 2014 at the meetings of the Strategic Planning Team and Executive Board. He will return to China for family reasons.
Mrs. Niken urged members to actively participate in selecting and nominating a qualified person from their organisations who will continue the work of the Institute in the region.
The General Conference also confirmed an earlier decision of the AIBD Executive Board to appoint Mr. Marcel Gomez, Senior Programme Manager, as the new Deputy Director of AIBD, to take over the post vacated by the retirement of Mrs. Manil Cooray.
Mr. Gomez has served AIBD for 29 years, implementing various training projects on diverse topics throughout Asia Pacific. He has represented the Institute in many international conferences across the globe, articulating the regions concerns and responses to the changing media environment.
The next General Conference in 2015 will be held in Chiangmai, Thailand hosted by the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT).
