46th Annual Gathering / 91th AIBD General Conference & Associate Meeting 2021 

8th December 2021 – AIBD held the first-ever virtual Executive Board Meeting. This annual meeting of members started at 2pm Malaysian time, with welcome remarks from AIBD GC President Mr Mayank Agrawal. 

Mr Agrawal welcomed the Chairperson of EXBO, H.E. Mr Has Sam Ath, and the EXBO members to the prestigious meeting. He expressed his regrets that members are meeting on the virtual platform, a restriction placed due to the pandemic. He also commented on the role of AIBD and highlighted that AIBD never ceased functioning throughout and complimented the Institue’s well-planned activities throughout the pandemic.  
 

H.E. Mr Has Sam Ath, gave the opening remarks and echoed Mr Agrawal, and further stressed the importance of the media during the pandemic, particularly the information dissemination efforts that helped to mitigate some of the impacts of the pandemic. He emphasized on the role of AIBD and the media development initiatives undertaken by the Institute.  

“The EXBO members have the opportunity and duty to steer AIBD toward greater success. ” -H.E. Mr Has Sam Ath. 
 

AIBD Director, Ms Philomena Gnanapragasam presented the Director’s Report where the activities, and initiatives of the past years were detailed. This was followed by Finance Reports presented by Ms. Ain Osman and Mr Krishanth Nair, from AIBD, Finance Department. 

The Chairperson of AIBD Strategic Plan Team (SPT), Dr Kim Youngyill from KBS, Korea presented the SPT Report 2021. The future of the AIBD’s flagship events, Asia Media Summit and General Conference were discussed amongst the EXBO members with insightful comments offered by the them. One of the last matters discussed in the meeting was the proposal and the endorsement of the Advisory Board.  

The EXBO meeting is the prelude to the General Conference.