Vice President U Myint Swe delivers a speech at the first coordination meeting of Steering Committee to hold CONSAL XVII. Photo: MNA
A first coordination meeting of the Steering Committee to hold the 17th Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL XVII) was held yesterday morning in Wunzin Minyarzar Hall of the National Library in Nay Pyi Taw. Vice President U Myint Swe who is Chairman of the steering committee delivered a speech at this meeting.
The meeting was attended by Steering Committee Vice Chairman and patron of the Myanmar Library Association Dr. Thaw Kaung, Steering Committee Secretary Union Minister Thura U Aung Ko, Steering Committee members, work committee members, sub-committee members and officials.
Vice President U Myint Swe said that the day’s meeting was the first meeting of the Steering Committee to hold CONSAL XVII, as Myanmar would be hosting the said meeting in May 2018. At the meeting associated meetings such as CONSAL’s third Executive Board meeting and 26th Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNLAO) would also be held.
The President’s Office had formed the steering committee and work committees for the successful holding of CONSAL XVII with its Notification No. 61/2017 dated 11 July 2017. The steering committee is composed of 13 members with Vice President U Myint Swe as chairman and Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture as Secretary. Similarly, a work committee with 13 members was formed with Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture as Chairman and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture as Secretary. For the successful holding of the congress, 14 sub-committees and a secretariat had been formed for cooperation and coordination with other ministries and organizations.
CONSAL XVII will be attended by ten ASEAN member countries and East Timor will also attend as an observer. The aim of holding the congress is for libraries, library associations and chief librarians to setup a network and cooperate in the libraries development project. Four duties had already been assigned for the work committee. Myanmar had been the host country of the 17th CONSAL from 2016 to 2018. The first and second Executive Board meetings were held in Yangon on 28-29 July 2016 and 8-9 May 2017. The third Executive Board meeting will be held together with the congress. Furthermore 26th CDNLAO will also be held. The 17th CONSAL to be held in May 2018 is the first time Myanmar is hosting an international congress on library discipline. It will be held in the same way as other countries as a national level congress. Ministries and responsible personnel are urged to cooperate and coordinate with good ideas for the successful holding of the congress and cooperate from all points of views, said the Vice President.
Next Chairman of work committee to hold 17th CONSAL Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture Thura U Aung Ko explained about preparation works to hold 17th CONSAL with a Power Point presentation.
Afterwards work committee Secretary Permanent Secretary U Tun Ohn of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture explained about arrangements made to hold 17th CONSAL.
Responsible personnel from14 sub-committees and the secretariat attending the meeting then explained about works done to hold the 17th CONSAL.
Later, committee member Union Minister Dr. Pe Myint and meeting attendants provided suggestions after which Chairman of the Steering Committee to hold 17th CONSAL Vice President U Myint Swe gave overall comments and suggestions based on the presentations made by the sub-committees and urged them to cooperate from all angles, after which the meeting was concluded.