Dr Jamili Nais, First Malaysian on World Heritage Panel

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- Sabah Parks director, Dr Jamili Nais, 52, was appointed as a panelist for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Heritage panel, for a tenure of four years, starting from this year until 2020. With the appointment, Jamali, who hails from Kampung Takutan, Ranau, is the first Malaysian to join the 13-member panel, hence, making him the only Asian representative. "This is a great honour for me. I had never expected to be chosen as a member of this panel as is it is very exclusive, competitive and the members come from all over the globe. "This position holds great responsibility. Among the responsibilities are assessing applications of world heritage sites. The panel will submit recommendations to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) on their suitability (to be world heritage sites),” he explained. He told this to reporters this after attending a press conference on the seventh Unesco Day celebration by Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun here Friday. Jamili, who had served the Sabah Parks for 29 years, said the appointment provided Malaysia an advantage as he could provide technical advice on prospective world heritage sites. --BERNAMA