16th May 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Asia Pacific Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) KL Secretariat office is officially open to public or anyone who is interested in Public Health. The Secretariat is located in Social & Preventive Medicine Department, University of Malaya. The opening ceremony was officiated by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research & Innovation) Prof. Dr. Awang Bulgiba Bin Awang Mahmud and witness by the President, Secretary-General and members of APACPH yesterday.
APACPH members from various local universities were also present during this momentous event.
“With the current leadership, APACPH has make a great impact in this region and globally.. “ said Prof. Dato’ Dr. Khairul AnuarAbdullah, Vice Chancellor of MAHSA University.
“Initially we have difficulty introducing Public Health programme in Nepal, but with APACPH network and collaboration, we manage to kick start the programme and now becoming our flagship programme..” said by Prof. Dato’ Dr. Syed Mohamed Aljunid, Senior Research Fellow of United Nations University
According to the Deputy Vice Chancellor, with the APACPH Secretariat based in University Malaya, his office is prepared to set aside half a million funding to support its activities and research collaborations under APACPH umbrella on a yearly basis. APACPH is currently the 3rd international secretariat office based in UM.
The Editor-in Chief for Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health (APJPH) Prof. Dr. Low WY was also present during this ceremony. She shared that APJPH journal ISI impact factor has increased since 2009 (impact factor: 0.765), 2010 (impact factor: 0.988), 2011 (impact factor: 1.056) and she hope this year in July, the impact factor will even go higher. She requested more participation from local universities to encourage their students to submit not only full papers to APJPH but cite papers that are published as well. “I’m very happy having the new Secretariat and the journal teams based in UM..” said Prof. Low. She believed that this great opportunity can help APACPH moved further to a greater height.
The Secretary-General had shared the Congratulatory Note by the Founder of APACPH, Dr. Jerrold M. Michael. The founder said “ APACPH group started by 5 deans of schools of public health in 1984 and now the size has grew to a total of 29 institutions in 15 nations. Your efforts have brought your organization to a highly merited position as a leading academic organization in the promotion of global health in the Asia Pacific region and in the international health community..”.
The Secretary General of APACPH then presented a plaque to Associate Professor Dr Maznah Dahlui on her appointment as the Regional Director for APACPH secretariat Kuala Lumpur office. The regional director had introduced Associate Professor Dr Victor Hoe who has been appointed as the webmaster of APACPH early this year. With his dedication and great passion, the APACPH website (www.apacph.org) has turned out to be more interactive and updated with the latest activities of its current members. In his presentation on the website, Dr Victor proposed that any upcoming events of APACPH members in their respective institutions can be published in the website. He added that APACPH is also available on social network website such as Facebook and Twitter.
The official ceremony was officially ended at 1 pm with some group photographs sessions, followed by light refreshment.
Camelina Chan
Executive Officer
APACPH Secretariat, KL
