Dear Colleagues,

Let me thank you for joining us at the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies held in Baku on November 18, 2016, as well as for extending your support in electing AZERTAC as the president of OANA for the next three-year term. I also extend my greetings to the newly elected Executive Board and wish its members all the best.

Every member-agency's role in the development of OANA is significant. Founded in 1961, OANA has emerged over the half a century as one of the most notable regional media organizations. We highly appreciate the contributions made by Russia's TASS news agency during its presidency in 2013-2016. We will invest our best efforts to continue the traditions set forward by our predecessors and elevate OANA to the higher summits.

The revolutionary innovations in the field of information technologies require us to think modern, develop new approaches and apply them in our daily work. Social media and information technologies are so closely interconnected that we can safely call it the core of news broadcasting. Today video is the most popular form of delivery of news. Rapid development of social media and mobile technologies brought the importance of using the video content to the foreground of our work.

Technological innovation is only one, yet significant part of the challenges we are facing today. Cooperation between our member-agencies is the prerequisite for meeting the challenges in time.

Two-third of information circulated throughout the world comes to OANA's share. With your active involvement and contribution, OANA as an organization bringing us together, should preserve its significance as a platform of exchange of the most accurate and unbiased news, broad knowledge and rich experience. We should continue to do our best to save the leading role of our organization in the region, and, therefore, I as the president of OANA, have the honor to call all my colleagues, especially the members of the Executive Board to remain committed to this noble professional mission.

Yours sincerely,
Aslan Aslanov

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