Asian Packaging Federation celebrates 50th anniversary in Japan

The Asian Packaging Federation (APF), which was founded in 1967 in Tokyo, Japan, will be celebrating its 50th year in existence with a series of packaging events in Japan, from September 29 to October 4, 2018.

Rohan Victoria, the current President of the APF and Immediate Past President of Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging, will be leading the Sri Lankan delegation to Japan. The delegation will include four past members of the Council of the Management of the APF.

It is of great interest to note that when the Japan Packaging Institute celebrated the 25th anniversary of the APF in the year 1992, the President and Secretary General of the federation were Sri Lankans and now at the time they celebrate the 50th anniversary, the incumbent President and Treasurer are from Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging (SLIP), which was inaugurated in 1975, joined the Asian Packaging Federation as an Executive Member in late 1970s and has been playing a very active role in its activities. Three past Presidents of the SLIP, including its founder President Stanley Wickremaratne, Dharmatilake Ratnayake and Rohan Victoria, have served the federation as its Presidents and Ratnayake as its Secretary General prior to be appointed as the President while Kithsiri Wijesundera, Gamini Marambe and Sunil Costa as its Treasurers.

Delegates from all the Executive member organisations of the APF will be participating in the 50th anniversary celebrations that are scheduled to be held at Tokyo Big Sight (Tokyo International Exhibition Centre) in conjunction with the meeting of its Board of Administration, General Assembly, judging of the Asia Star 2018 contest for excellence in packaging and the awards night.

All Honorary members of the APF, who will be attending the function, including Dharmatilake Ratnayke and Gamini Marambe, will be conferred special recognition as Certified Asian Packaging Professionals (CAPP) considering their long period of service and experience in the packaging industry.

Considering the rapid development in packaging technology and packaging industry and recognizing the necessity for international co-operation of packaging organisations of the countries in the Asia Pacific region, the representatives of packaging organisations in China, India, Japan, Korea and the Philippines resolved upon the formation of the APF in 1967, in Tokyo, Japan.

The APF is an international organisation administering the packaging needs of all those countries bordering Japan on the East, Turkey and the Arab peninsula on the West, Commonwealth of Independent States on the North and Australia and New Zealand on the South.

At present, the membership of the APF is made up of 15 packaging organisations from 14 Asian countries, viz. Bangladesh, China (two organisations), India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.