AZERTAC elected as vice-president of OANA

Seoul, November 8, AZERTAC

Chairmanship of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) for 2019-2022 has been passed from AZERTAC to the Korean Yonhap news agency. Such a decision was made at the 17th OANA General Assembly which has wrapped up in the capital of the Republic of Korea, Seoul.

CEO of Yonhap Cho Sung-boo assumed the powers of OANA's President.

The new composition of the Executive Board was approved at the 17th General Assembly. AZERTAC was unanimously elected as OANA vice-president, while Mongolia’s Montsame news agency was admitted to the membership of the OANA Executive Board and the Pakistani Press International (PPI) to the organization’s Technical Committee. The OANA Executive Board consists of 13 news agencies. Yonhap is president and AZERTAC, Russia’s TASS, China’s Xinhua and Turkey’s Anadolu agencies are vice-presidents. Australian AAP, Malaysian Bernama, Bahrain's BNA, Iran's IRNA, Japan's Kyodo, Vietnam's VNA, Lebanon's NNA, and Mongolian Montsame news agencies are members of the Executive Board.

Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) was selected as the host agency for the 18th OANA General Assembly scheduled for 2022. Palestine's WAFA agency was granted an observer status at the OANA. The participants also approved the proposed amendments to the OANA’s Statute, its attributes and the Seoul Declaration.

OANA Secretary General Vugar Seyidov briefed the audience on the organization’s activities for 2016-2019 chaired by AZERTAC, presenting financial and technical reports regarding that period. The comprehensive proposals submitted by AZERTAC were widely discussed at the OANA Executive Board meetings held in Lebanon, Iran and Vietnam.

Vugar Seyidov wished OANA Secretary-General-elect Lee Dong-min success in her post.

During the General Assembly the winners of the 2019 OANA Excellence Award Vietnamese VNA and Chinese Xinhua news agencies were awarded diplomas and prizes.

Addressing the event, Director of the Iranian IRNA News Agency Seyyed Zia Hashemi, President of Japanese Kyodo News Agency Toru Mizutani, Vice President of the Xinhua news agency Liu Siyang thanked AZERTAC’s Chairman of Board Aslan Aslanov for successful chairmanship of the OANA in 2016-2019.

AZERCAC’s Chairman of Board Aslan Aslanov wished OANA's new president, head of Yonhap news agency Cho Sung-boo success, and expressed his confidence that Yonhap`s tenure will mark further improvement in the organization`s work.

Following the General Assembly, Yonhap news agency presided over the 46th OANA Executive Board meeting, which discussed the activities of the new secretariat and the prospects of OANA's future development. The organization decided to hold the 47th Executive Board meeting in the spring of 2020 in Mongolia, which will be hosted by the Montsame news agency.

Elshan Shahbalayev

Parvana Garayeva

Special Correspondents