On the occasion of celebrations of 60 years of International Cooperative Alliance-Asia Pacific, its Regional Director Balu Iyer honoured Dileep Sanghani, newly elected Chairman of NCUI and Dr U S Awasthi, IFFCO Managing Director on Thursday.
Balu honored both of them at their respective headquarters in Delhi. Iyer presented mementos to them. Talking to Indian Cooperative Iyer said it is thanksgiving by ICA Asia Pacific for those members who have been part of us for many years.
It bears recall that ICA-AP celebrated its 60th year with a mega Webinar on November 13. The event, which saw participation of many co-op stalwarts, was covered extensively by Indian Cooperative.
Balu said there are 14 members from India and ICA AP plans to give mementos to each of them, thanking them for their support. “Since NCUI and IFFCO, among others, have been majorly supported us I personally visited the two organizations and met the leaders”, he added.
“For the rest of the members, the ICA AP office is figuring out a way to offer them token of thanks through memento. Quite a few of them are outside Delhi and it is not possible to physically thank them”, Balu stated.
Referring to his meeting with Dileep Sanghani, Balu said I also wanted to congratulate him in person on his election to the highest co-op body in the country. We could not discuss co-op issues as it was his first day in the office and several felicitation events were lined up for him, he added. “We aim to have a detailed engagement with him on larger co-op issues sooner than later”, Balu stated.
Referring to the meeting, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi wrote on his twitter wall, “Today, I met Mr. @bgiyer Regional Director-Asia & Pacific, @icacoop. He honoured & presented a memento to me on the occasion of celebrations of 60 years of ICA-AP @ICAAPAC. We at #IFFCO are always committed to national & Global Cooperative growth & development.”
The Regional Office has been situated in India from the start with branch offices in Singapore and Malaysia. Starting with 7 members from 6 countries, the ICA-AP today serves 109-member organizations from 32 countries.
In the 13th November webinar, several representatives from the member countries had participated. President Ariel Guarco of ICA in his message congratulated the region and said that during his visits he had the opportunity to meet dedicated members who were steadfastly committed to principles and upholding the cooperative identity.
Others who participated in the event included Li Chunsheng, ICA-AP President, Dr Chandra Pal Singh, its Vice-President, Sung-hee Lee, Chairman of National Cooperative Federation (NACF) Korea, Dr U S Awasthi and N. Satyanarayana, CE, NCUI.