It is a great privilege to be writing this for The Bulletin of the AFPA as I assume the role and responsibilities of the president of the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations (AFPA). I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with you all for the next two years.

As my first step, I would like to express my deep appreciation to our immediate past president Afzal Javed (Pakistan) for his leadership and efforts to raise the profile of the AFPA and its initiatives and activities. I would also like to thank the executive committee (2017 – 2019), council members and honourary fellows for their guidance.

I am looking forward to continuing an active engagement with member societies to progress AFPA’s objectives, in particular to share psychiatric knowledge, skills and practices among Asia and Pacific countries to improve care of the mentally ill in the AFPA region. Among the issues we would particularly like to focus on, and potentially develop joint positons around, are the recruitment and retention of an appropriate workforce to meet the population’s mental health needs, the promotion of mental health issues to Asian communities and the role and scope of mental health legislation.

In this issue of the Bulletin, you will find a summary of the 7th World Congress of Asian Psychiatry (WCAP) held in Sydney 22 – 24 February, 2019. The WCAP was a great success, attended by more than 350 participants from more than 30 countries. I would like to thank the hosts, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists for their organisation and a most enjoyable congress.

During the 7th WCAP in Sydney, the AFPA executive committee for 2019?2021 were appointed as follows:

President: Malcolm Hopwood (Australia)
President elect: Gundugurti Prasad Rao (India)
Immediate past President: Afzal Javed (Pakistan)
Secretary general: Nova Riyanti Yusuf (Indonesia)
Secretary for science: Roger Ng (Hong Kong)
Secretary for education and training: Rene M. Samaniego (Philippines)
Secretary for finance: Samudra kathriarachchi (Sri Lanka)
I look forward to working with this committee to further the aims of objectives of AFPA over the next two years. (The author declares no conflicts of interest in writing this address.)

Malcolm J. Hopwood
Professorial Psychiatry Unit, Albert Road Clinic
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia
Corresponding author. 31-33 Albert Road, Melbourne VIC 3004, Australia