The Federation of Asia-Pacific Aircargo Association’s (FAPAA) 44th Executive Council Meeting (ECM) hosted by the Nepal Freight Forwarders Association (NEFFA), was held at the Hotel Soaltee Crown Plaza, Kathmandu, Nepal between July 26th and 28th 2017.
The business meetings were attended by a total of 41 persons, comprising of 21 international delegates from 13 of the FAPAA region member economies, as well as 18 local freight forwarding company member representative delegates; a representative from IATA; and an official media representative from Payload Asia Magazine.
Opening Ceremony
The meeting was officially opened by Mr. Prakash Singh Karki, President of NEFFA, who highlighted the expanding role of freight forwarders and the opportunities and challenges facing the sector in the region.
The Executive Council Meetings
The first day of the business meetings revolved around sub-committee reports and detailed discussions on the various sectors of FAPAA activities:
FIATA activity and liaison report.
Chaired by Mr Paul Golland, Chairman, AFIF, Australia – FAPAA as a regional federation of country / and or region national Association members’, has a good working relationship with the global freight forwarder representative body FIATA. The most recent annual FIATA World Congress was held in Dublin Ireland, in October 2016 and the annual ‘Headquarters Session’ meetings were held in Zurich, Switzerland in March 2017, at which many FAPAA delegates had attended. Amongst other issues, an emerging matter was the imminent global introduction of the new IATA/FIATA Air Cargo Program (IFACP) and members’ were interested as to how it would impact their own specific territory, particularly in an administrative and operational sense.
The member from the Australian Federation of International Forwarders (AFIF) advised that IATA and FIATA were both keen to introduce the new program into Australia in early 2018, following the intended initial introduction in Canada. However, AFIF had made it clear to both IATA and FIATA that it would continue to explore ways in which the new program could benefit its membership in Australia, despite there being no clear tangible benefits to date with the planned transitioning of the current financial review criteria at the time of inception of the new program. The air cargo forwarding industry, under the leadership of AFIF, noted that whilst such criteria would be subjected to an independent legal review prior to full implementation, had also obtained its own legal advice as to issues of potential concern in these matters. Furthermore, AFIF advised that it had also discussed and kept the FIATA Airfreight Institute body of FIATA informed throughout the process.
In general, FAPAA members agreed to continue to work to achieve a meaningful dialogue with FIATA on relevant air cargo issues affecting all parties within the sector.
IATA / CASS Forum
Chaired by Mr Brian Wu, HAFFA, Hong Kong, China – FAPAA continued its businesslike working relationship with IATA and Rodrigo (Rudy) Reyes, regional manager, Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security (APCS), Asia Pacific, based at IATA Singapore, was invited to join the meeting to address a number of ongoing and emerging matters, including the sometimes controversial Cargo Accounts Settlement System (CASS), where it operated within FAPAA member countries’ in the region.
Other matters discussed with IATA were the aforementioned IFACP Program and operational and admin issues; the handling efficiencies of which varied from country to country within the region. The IATA Customer Portal also came in for some criticism in that costs associated with updates by members were thought to be unreasonable.
Air-cargo Security
This vital issue is a regular agenda item and members exchanged unclassified information on developments as to program changes within their regions. Australia recently had a major upgrade to their program, as required by the US TSA, introducing enhanced screening technology.
Training and Education
Chaired by Mr James Fang, TAFLA, Chinese Taipei – Each FAPAA member country delivered a detailed report on the progress and status of this vital area within their own association. Progress continued to be made and once again it was clear that most countries had either developed and were delivering, or in the process of developing, sector specific training and education for and on behalf of their own membership. In the past, those association members who had an advanced training program had helped, or advised, those who were planning to introduce such training programs and this aspect encapsulated a tangible benefit of being a member of the FAPAA organisation as a whole.
HAFFA, Hong Kong, China alerted members that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was planning the introduction of a ‘competency-based’ approach to dangerous goods by Air Training. Members were advised that the new ICAO provisions would be incorporated in the 2019-2020 Edition of the UN ICAO ‘Technical Instructions manuals, which means they would be implemented in DG training with effect from January 1st, 2019.
Other Matters
There was discussion on other matters, including an overview from each member association on its annual ‘Country Report’, detailing major highlights affecting the industry in their own country or region. In addition, the council discussed potential eligible Asia Pacific countries and / or regions who may be interested in joining FAPAA and the council actively engages with such Associations’ to encourage them to join the group where feasible. Publicity and Communication remains an important aspect of FAPAA’s work and the Council appreciated the ongoing support of Payload Asia magazine for publishing articles of relevance and interest to its wide circle of subscribers in the region. The Council also agreed to upgrade and modernise its website, which also provides a central link to all FAPAA member Associations websites.
Annual General Meeting
At the AGM, Mr Niral Kadawatharatchie of Sri Lanka Logistics & Freight Forwarders Association (SLFFA), was elected FAPAA Chairman for the next two year term, whilst outgoing Chairman Mr Alec Koh, representing SAAA, Singapore, was given high praise for his leadership of the organisation through his two year term and was formally invited to remain on the Board of the Federation as Immediate-Past Chairman. The Council then elected other member association representatives to fill remaining executive positions on the FAPAA main board as follows: Deputy Chair: AFIF, Australia; Hon-Secretary: AFPI, Philippines; Hon-Treasurer: BAFFA, Bangladesh, Hon-Auditor: NEFFA, Nepal
Next Meeting
It was agreed that the 45th FAPAA Executive Council Meeting and AGM would be held in Thailand during July or August 2018, in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai with the exact date and venue details to be announced.
All delegates congratulated host Association NEFFA who were given deserved accolades on facilitating a first-class event. The local organising committee worked extremely hard to ensure all necessary arrangements were in place and coordinated effectively.
