The APACPH Annual Assembly was held on 26 October 2021 in conjunction with the 52nd APACPH Conference which will be held on the 27 and 28 October 2021 as a hybrid conference due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The APACPH General Assembly 2021 was also not able to be held as a face-to-face meeting and was held online through the Zoom Conference application. The APACPH General Assembly was led by Prof Dr Low Wah Yun. Prof Low shared the activities that APACPH was involved in over her term as President.
During the General Assembly, the National Cheng Kung University and Alma Alta University was inducted as the new institutional member of APACPH.
The APACPH 2021 election was announced by Dr Surenthirakumaran Rajendira from the University of Jaffna as the Election Officer for the four positions the President-Elect, General Secretary, Vice President 1 and Vice President 2 which was up for election. Prof Dr Indika Karunathilake from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka was elected as the General Secretary for APACPH and Professor Dr Victor Hoe from the University of Malaya as the Vice President 2.
There was no nomination for the President-Elect and Vice President 1 position. Under the APACPH Constitution, the position will be left open until the next APACPH General Assembly in 2022. The nomination for the two positions will be open and eligible Institutional members should consider nominating candidates for the two positions.
The University of Philipines Manila will be the host of the 53rd APACPH Conference in 2022. It will be held as a hybrid conference and the detail of the conference will be available on the APACPH website.
There were reports from Vice President Administrative, Prof Dr Maznah Dahlui, Vice President Finance, Prof Dr Hung Yi Chiou, and Vice President 1, Prof Dr Indika Karunathilake on the various activities of theirs portfolio.
The Directors from the various regional office also share the activities in the regions. Prof Dr Philip Baker the activities from the Australia Regional Office, Prof Dr Agustin Kusumayati the activities from Indonesia Regional Office, Prof Dr Indika Karunathilake the activities from South Asia Regional Office, Prof So Yoon Kim the activities from Korea Regional Office, Prof Dr Maznah Dahlui the activities from the Kuala Lumpur Regional Office, Prof Dr Ya-Wen Betty Chiu the activities from Taiwan Regional Office, and Prof Elahe Nezami the activities from the Americas Regional Office.
Prof Dr Low presented the report of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health on behalf of Prof Colin Binns the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal as he had to attend his clinic. The impact factor of the APJPH has increased to 1.339 in 2021. Prof Colin Binns will be retiring as the Editor-in-Chief at the end of 2021, Prof Dr Low Wah Yun will be the next Editor-in-Chief of APJPH. However, before the end of the meeting, Prof Colin Binns was able to share the activities of the Journal with the General Assembly.
The Director of the International Cyber University for Health (ICUH), Dr So Yoon Kim shares the activities of the university and the plan for the future of the university.
The 52 APACPH conference is jointly organised by Airlanga University and APAPH. More than 2000 participants have registered for the conference and 2048 will be attending it online and 95 will be attending the conference physically at the Shangri-La Hotel in Surabaya. Twelve participants were awarded the Young Investigator Travel Awards and 29 received the Young Investigator Awards.
Before the end of the General Assembly, Prof Dr Low Wah Yun handed over the presidency to Prof Dr Agustin Kusumayati the incoming President of APACPH.
