EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF ESCAP APPOINTS HAK-FAN LAU AS CHIEF

OF UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICES IN BANGKOK

 

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations ESCAP, Mr. Kim Hak-Su, has appointed Hak-Fan Lau as Chief of UN Information Services (UNIS) in Bangkok, serving UNESCAP and acting concurrently as Director of UN Information Centre for Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.  Mr. Lau, who comes to this post with two decades’ experience in journalism and public information, takes up his duties today.

Mr. Lau has worked for the Department of Public Information at UN Headquarters for more than seven years.  He is currently Chief of Chinese Language Unit at UN Radio.  In this capacity, he also serves as the editor of UN News Centre -- a web-based newswire service -- in Chinese.  Mr. Lau joined UN Radio in 1999 as acting Chief of Asian Unit, overseeing the production of weekly programmes for the region in Bangla, Chinese, English, Hindi, Indonesian and Urdu.  He was responsible for the launch in 2000 of a daily broadcast in Chinese and has overseen a rapid growth in audience number to 128 million, a third of UN Radio’s worldwide total, through a sustained, proactive and multi-pronged outreach campaign.

Having begun his journalistic career with the BBC World Service radio in London in 1987, Mr. Lau worked there for 12 years prior to joining the United Nations.  He was a Senior Producer in the Chinese language service before moving to World Service English news and current affairs department in 1995.  He undertook a wide range of assignments, including serving as a London-based Asia Reporter for World Service News, editing East Asia Today -- BBC’s flagship programme for the region, and being part of the team which launched The World Today, the new flagship current affairs programme on the BBC.

Mr. Lau holds a master’s degree in international political economy and a post-graduate diploma in international relations, both from the London School of Economics and Political Science.  He did undergraduate studies in business administration at City University of Hong Kong.  Born in China in 1964, Mr. Lau became a citizen of the United Kingdom in 1993.  He is married.

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For information media • not an official record