(VOVworld) - The Vietnam Journalists Association (VJA) assumed the position of President and Secretary General of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ) for the 2015 – 2017 tenure at the CAJ’s 18th General Assembly in Hanoi on November 27. VJA Chairman Thuan Huu will serve as the CAJ President while VJA Vice Chairman Ho Quang Loi is the Secretary General. 

Huu stressed that the CAJ will optimise the best opportunities brought about by the formation of the ASEAN Community, slated for the end of 2015, to promote the regional press’s development and their role and responsibility in the Community. 

The CAJ’s 18th General Assembly approved the action plan for the 2015 – 2017 term, during which the confederation will tighten the solidarity and connectivity among journalists and press organisations in the ASEAN Community, boost journalist training and experience sharing, and raising the CAJ’s role in the region and the world. 

At the event, representatives of the CAJ members signed the Hanoi Declaration, which states that the CAJ will step up training and experience and journalist exchanges for common development while bolstering the confederation’s role in each member country as well as in the region and the world. 

The CAJ encouraged the journalists’ associations of Brunei, Myanmar and Cambodia to join the confederation. 

It also established a working group headed by the Thai press association with the task of drafting detail proposals to ensure the continuous and appropriate development of the CAJ in the coming years. 

The CAJ executive board will convene their next conference in Indonesia in 2016.