A new subsidiary to the IPA’s Educational Publishers Forum (IPA-EPF) has been formed to meet the needs of publishers in the South East Asian, Australian and New Zealand regions. During the 2022 IPA Congress in Jakarta, a group of educational publishers got together to explore interest from those who find the European IPA-EPF meetings to be in the ‘middle of the night’ times given the differing timezones.All representatives agreed, and so the EPF ASEAN+ group was formed. This group includes the South East Asian Nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), as well as Australia and New Zealand (the ‘+’ to the ASEAN+).
The inaugural chair is Trasvin Jittidecharak of Thailand, owner of Silkworm Books. New Zealand representatives include Graeme Cosslett, President of the Publishers Association of New Zealand and Chief Executive of NZCER Press, and Nicola Smith, PANZ council member and Managing Director of Essential Resources. It its early days, the EPF ASEAN+ group aims to discuss common concerns of educational publishers in the region, and will look at the potential to support each other where advocacy is needed in each of the respective countries.
