MOSCOW, September 19 (Itar-Tass) - Two-thirds of the globe receives news from agencies of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), Itar-Tass Director General Sergei Mikhailov said in opening remarks at the 15th General Assembly of OANA on Thursday.

“It is a big honour and responsibility for Itar-Tass to receive OANA members in Moscow for the second time,” the head of the Russian news agency noted. “OANA is a remarkable format for communication that helps to establish friendly and business contacts, and we will try to create a warm working atmosphere these days,” he said.

“The role of the Asia-Pacific region in the world is growing year by year: Not only the economic successes of the region’s countries but also political and cultural issues draw the attention of the world media,” Mikhailov added. “Reports from Asia are now awaited no less eagerly than news from Europe or the United States,” he said, adding that “the region accounts for about 60 percent of global GDP, 40 percent of the population and half of direct foreign investment”.

“The potential of the region is huge, and year by year, the vector of global development is shifting towards Asia. This makes our work important as never before,” the director general said.

He said that “the main thing in the activity of any news agency is credibility”. “In the era of social networks, mobile internet and smart phones, the total flow of information hitting a person is vast. In these conditions, people need reliable providers of information. We must become such providers,” he said.

“We must process all this information noise and deliver only true information to our subscribers,” Mikhailov added.

He stressed that news agencies were “the mirror of the world and the very reality depends on how truly they will reflect it”. “The way the covered events will develop in the future depends on how exactly and promptly we do our job,” he said, adding that “the situation in the Middle East and in Africa confirms this”.

“An exact and prompt news bulletin can protect against thoughtless political decisions,” he added. “Information must be an instrument for avoiding and settling problems. OANA’s role was to help make it so that “news inside the Asia-Pacific region knows no state borders so that every person could learn what is going on in his or her home city, country and the world,” he said.

“Two-thirds of the global population receives news from OANA news agencies. This places special responsibility on us,” Mikhailov added.