Fiji has been appointed to the post of Secretary-General for the South East ASEAN Pacific Audio Visual Archival Association.
The association was formed in 1996 with Fiji becoming an associate member in 1998, and is now full member.
In acknowledging the appointment Ministry of Information permanent secretary Ms Sharon Smith-Johns said the appointment augured well with the government policy of forging relations with the ASEAN member states.
The Ministry of Information is responsible for all archival materials for Fiji and has more than 1 million records stored in its archives.
Audio Visual collections of Fiji has well over 500,000 hours of 16mm film format, = inch U-matic Low and High Band as well as SP Betacam materials from the 1940s to date.
“To retrieve, restore and digitise audio visual materials is a huge project that will require serious investment, and in this regard the ministry will look at avenues to start the project by next year” Ms Smith-Johns said.
“One way of archiving this is through networking in organisations such as SEAPAVAA where we can learn from, and look at countries like Singapore as a case study for audio visual archiving digitization.”
Ministry of Information director, Ms Setaita Natai attended the meeting on behalf of the ministry.
“To be elected as the Secretary-General is a great achievement for Fiji,” Ms Natai said.
“The biggest threat to our audio visual archives is the way they are stored. Also most are formatted in a way where they cannot be used because they rely on old technology, this is why it is so important to invest in new technology and convert these records in a proper format for future generation to view.”
In addition to this the law on this issue requires all government and quasi-government agencies to deposit their audio visual materials with the national Archives of Fiji, where they are deposited and should be made available.