Azerbaijan's AZERTAC News Agency Takes Over OANA Presidency From TASS

From Nor Faridah Abd Rashid BAKU (Azerbaijan), Nov 18 (Bernama) -- Azerbaijan's AZERTAC news agency today took over the presidency of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) from Russia's TASS news agency while the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) was elected as one of the Executive Board members. AZERTAC director-general Aslan Aslanov will now lead the organisation as its president for the 2016-2019 period. The announcement was made at the 16th General Assembly of OANA, a massive platform which brings together 44 news agencies from 35 countries, which are responsible for two-thirds of the information circulated throughout the world. The assembly saw the presence of almost all member countries. Editor-in-Chief Zakaria Abdul Wahab represented Bernama, which was also one of the Executive Board members in the previous period. During the event, awards for outstanding achievement were presented to Yonhap's Chief of Media Technology Department Jung Tae-sung, and Editor of TASS news agency Sergey Lebedev. The general assembly also unanimously agreed to hold the 2019-2022 OANA general assembly in South Korea. OANA was formed in 1961 on the initiative of UNESCO to secure direct and free exchange of news among the news agencies of a region inhabited by more than one half of the world's population. The Asia-Pacific countries account for 56 per cent of world gross product, some 50 per cent of its trade turnover, over 60 per cent of its maritime and nearly 25 per cent of air transport volume. The world's largest financial reserves and science-intensive technologies are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region. --BERNAMA