Articles

Participation of the President of Ekotek Group in 2009 WPO Board of Directors Summer Session

10 July, 2009

President of Ekotek Group and President of the National Packaging Confederation ( NKPack) Dr Andrey L. Zagorsky is also a member of Board of Directors of the World Packaging Organization (WPO).

The 2009 WPO Board of Directors Summer Session

In the period of June 30-July 2 the meeting of the Summer Session of rhe WPO Board of Directors was held in Mexico City, the capital of the Republic of Mexico. Prior to the sessions intensive consultations between the leaders of the packaging unions, associations and institutions of different countries took place on the topic: is it safe enough to come to Mexico in the middle of widely discussed danger of non-controled spread of the virus of so called pig flu desease? Due to the need of obtaining the official recommendations of the Mexican Health Ministry the session of the WPO Booard of Directors was postponed from April 2009 to the end of June-the beginning of July of that year. And here dating the last week of June the most brave packagers started to get together in one of the biggest cities of our planet. At the time before the WPO Board of Directors meeting, thanks to the sincere and active hospitality of the inviting side, the Association of Mexican Packagers ( AMEE ), the guests of the capital of Mexico were able to acquaint themselves with everyday activities of business processes organization in several industrial sites of the Mexican packaging industry, located in the city of Toluca , 70 km from Mexico City. The paricipants of the WPO Board of Directors Session could also visit there a large enterprise of the local beer brewing industry( the products of which can be seen on the shelves of general stores in Moscow and St.Petersburg). In addition, the guests of the Mexican packagers had an opportunity to attend the displays of the Exhibition “Expo Pack Mexico/Procesa”, where the meeting of old friends and discussions of well-experienced experts on the most important trends in the development of the world packaging took place. The visit of the dynamically advancing specialized international exhibition was a magnificent overture to the heated discussions at the WPO Board of Directors meetings.

So, on a morning of July 2009 the the regular session of the WPO Board of Directors began its work in the largest conference hall of the one of the biggest hotels of Mexico – “Nicco” with the presence of more than twenty participants from 11 countries of the world. The Russian packagers were represented by the National Packaging Confederation (NKPack), which had the spirit to delegate its represantative to the WPO Board of Directors session in spite of the global panic due to the threat of the spread of the pig flu virus.

It was the first time when the packagers of Nigeria attended the meeting of the WPO Board of Directors Session. Accordingly, The President of the WPO, Mr Keith Pearson congratulated on behalf of all his colleagues, the represantative of Nigeria, Mr Ahmed Omah , the general manager of the biggest manufacturer of label products among the countries of the tropical Africa, on his debut at the international packaging forum.

An important decision on the enlagement of the WPO participation was made. Now Lebanon became the member of this world organization.

The issue of strategic importance was the election of the new Vice-President of WPO. Due to the election of the president of the China Packaging Association Shi Wanpeng as the President of the Asian Packaging Associaton ( APF ) , the former AFF President Mr Albert Lim forwarded to the governing bodies of WPO the official request to elect the new President of the Asian regional packaging union Mr Shi Wopeng as the Vice-President of WPO. During the discussions on the nominee for a new WPO Vice-President position, most effective support to his Chinese colleague was provided by Dr Andrey Zagorsky. Thanks to his energetic efforts and sound argumentation this issue was solved without any delay and at the first attempt. The President of the China Packaging Federation and President of the Asian Packaging Association Mr Shi Wanpeng after the vote procedure in Mexico City became the new Vice-President of the World Packaging Organization ( WPO ). In fact, the situation, when the leader of the packaging industry of one of largest and most dynamic economies of the world has taken the second position in the biggest international organization, uniting the packagers of the whole world, is quite symbolic.. We do hope that the new opportunities which the leader of the China Packaging Federation, has aquired in the result of voting session, will become the strong basis for the strengthening of the cooperation of two countries in the field of modern packaging.

In the end of the session the members of the Board of Directors confirmed the date of the next meeting of the Board of Directors in Colombo ( Sri Lanka ) in autumn, 2009.

Traditionally, after the main events, the Gala Party of the Ceremony of the World Star Award presentation to the winners of this most notable international last year display of the greatest professional achievements in packaging field ( the Jury of the former contest worked in October, 2009 in Capetown) took place.