FIA Region II enjoyed a successful year in 2015, with its President, Takayoshi Yashiro, saying that “many seeds had been sown” in the hope of a rich future harvest.

The JAF President said that much of the focus has been on capacity building among the region’s clubs, through mentoring and through implementation of the FIA University concept in the region.

“On the whole things are going well. We have a three-year plan, one pillar of which involves mentoring, while a second focuses on a Region II version for the FIA University.At the round table meeting we had in June in Malaysia we decided to work on these two pillars,” said Mr Yashiro.

“In both programmes Professor Luis Vives from ESADE made a great contribution,” he added. “In terms of mentoring, we have clubs such as Cambodia being mentored by Singapore, Australia’s NRMA is helping Bangladesh, Sri Lanka is assisting Nepal, South Australia is mentoring Malaysia and so on. At present Cambodia is an associate member but through mentoring it will hopefully become a full member. “Another pillar is FIA University, which we held from 29 to 31 October,” he said. “We can divide this into two parts – business theory and practical information exchange. The project was rated very highly by the clubs that took part. We now have budget to carry on for a further three years, so we are hoping to hold two sessions next year.

“It will allow executives to position their clubs for a successful future and hopefully it will give them the confidence to aim higher.”