ABU President confident of Union’s growth

The ABU’s new President Mr Gil Hwan-Young says he is confident the union will go from strength to strength.

Speaking during his first official visit to the ABU headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Gil said that under the current Secretariat, the Union was progressing in the right direction.

“I am pretty confident that the ABU will have great achievements in all its projects,” he said.

During his visit, Mr Gill discussed strategic issues with Secretary-General Dr Javad Mottaghi and Directors of ABU Technology, Programming, News and Sports.

He expressed support for the continuous transformation of the Union to be a more member and service oriented, forward-looking organisation to help members face the challenges of the digital revolution and platform conversion. 

Mr Gill said he would do his best to help the ABU to launch new, innovative projects such as co-productions focusing on social problems and conflict-solving across the Asia-Pacific and establishing content exchange programs.

Mr Gil is President and CEO of Korean Broadcasting System and he said KBS would consider offering to the most disadvantaged ABU members some of the equipment replaced when the KBS switched from analogue to digital in 2012.  KBS also pledged its support for the ABU advisory services which help ABU members to bridge the digital divide.

Mr Gil chaired a staff meeting with 35 members of the Secretariat team and expressed his deep gratitude for their hard work.

Dr Mottaghi said that 2014 would be an exceptionally busy year because of the 50th anniversary of the Union and several ground-breaking projects like the Digital Broadcasting Symposium, the World Summit on Media for Children and Media Summit on Climate Change. He expressed his confidence that under the strong leadership of the ABU Presidency and the Administrative Council the Union would grow stronger than ever.