First of all, I would like to start this contribution by addressing much appreciation and gratitude to Professor Yoon-Moo Koo for giving me an opportunity to write in the AFOB Newsletter. I believe that AFOB will continuously grow under a solid leadership of Professor Wen-Chien Lee and I am grateful to be a part of AFOB as Secretary General. 

So far, I have had an opportunity to meet numerous amazing colleagues by attending various AFOB events such as ACB, ARS, YABEC, AFOB-EFB Joint Symposia, and Forums. With attendance, not only have I met wonderful colleagues but also have received opportunities to communicate in regards to academics and joint researches. Words cannot express my deep gratitude towards AFOB for giving me such a valuable opportunity. With this heart, I would like to make every effort to contribute to the development of AFOB, which I have been thinking of some ideas being shared on what we can do for the scholars of the future generations. 

Currently, some important suggestions have been made into consideration within the board meeting by the board members.
1. We need to sustain strong relationships with businesses of many different nations as much as possible in order to strengthen industry-academic cooperation. 
2. Creation of AFOB's own Journal instead of publishing journals as special issues. 
3. Activation of the Division activity. 
4. Activation of partnership between AFOB and EFB. 
Only some of the important suggestions have been listed above here, thus we should resolve one by one at a step by step. 

Since the ARS hosted in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in February of 2020, all events have been rearranged to online events due to worsened COVID-19. We now live in a world where most activities happen online. With a reminder of an old saying 'Crisis breeds opportunity', we should keep our AFOB activity in action via online. 

Despite many uncertainties during these hard times, I hope that everyone stays safe and healthy. I anticipate for the day to come soon that we can all meet and greet face-to-face at the AFOB event without worries. 

December 15, 2020

Seung Wook Kim, Secretary General of AFOB