The Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) General Assembly today (February 6, 2019) elected a new APC Executive Board as the 5th General Assembly closed with the largest number of more than 200 delegates attending the two-day proceedings in Dubai.
Mr. Majid Rashed was unanimously elected as the APC President for a second term. The two Vice President positions were won by Ms. Jang Hyang Sook (NPC Korea) and Mr. Masayuki Mizuno (NPC Japan), meaning Mr Mizuno will also continue his position as the Vice President of the new APC board.
The two Members at Large roles were secured by Mr. Keng Chuan Ng (NPC Malaysia) and Mr. Abdulraheem Alsheikh (NPC Saudi Arabia) and Ms. Nasabat Oyunbat (NPC Mongolia) was appointed to the Women in Sport Committee Chairperson.
The new Board will hold their first meeting later in the day to discuss the priorities for the forthcoming year.
Welcoming the new Board, Mr. Rashed said: “I hope that with hard work, tolerance and peace, we can continue doing the noble work of supporting our Movement and our athletes, which has always been our centre of focus. We have had a successful Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games and hope to have more such Games which will leave an impact in everyone’s mind. We, as the new board, guarantee to implement the APC strategic plan and try to achieve our goals.
“In the last four years, we have worked well, even if there have been challenges, we have always worked together for the APC and its membership. We want to work even harder now and encourage the GA and EB to do better for the future. So, all the best to the new Board.”
On the first day of the General Assembly, (Tuesday 5 February) the newly-formed National Paralympic Committee of Bhutan was also formally ratified as a full member of APC. Bhutan Princess Her Royal Highness Eeuphelma Choden Wangchuk was presented with a certificate by APC President Mr. Rashed and the new NPC was warmly welcomed by the delegates.
The APC Biennial report giving an overview of the work APC was presented together with an update on the 2015 – 2018 Strategic plan.
In the other business, the APC members overwhelmingly voted to approve the APC Constitution which clearly defines the Membership Policy, sets term limits for the Elected Board and is line with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Handbook and Guidelines.The members also approved 2016-2018 Financial Audited reports.
The first day of the General Assembly closed with presentations from the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games Organising Committee on the successful conduct of the Games, followed by the progress reports by the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 organisers.
Earlier in the week, the APC held a two-day conference which was attended by IPC President Andrew Parsons who addressed the meeting and praised the growing Paralympic Movement in Asia. The focus of the conference was to share knowledge and information on how to develop Para-sport within the region. Presentations were given by the IPC’s development arm, the Agitos Foundation, as well as a number of International Federations, Japan Sport and the Nippon Sport Science University. In addition, some of the NPCs shared their stories about how they had successfully overcome challenges to enable their athletes to achieve success.
