Exhibition Report from Ray Kelly, Australian Commissioner

The Thirteenth Asian International Stamp Exhibition and World Youth Stamp Exhibition was held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Bangkok, from 25 March to 3 April, 2000.

Large crowds attended every day, the attractions were "personalised" stamps with queues "miles" long, the popular passports filling for all ages plus 85 dealer booths largely offering topical and Thai issues with very little for the advanced collector. An interesting aspect of the layout was that on closing day, the frames viewing was able to be closed at 3pm whilst dealers continued trading until 6:30pm without fear of a security problem.

Australia was represented on the World Youth Jury by Edric Druce with Linda Lee serving her apprenticeship whilst the 13th Asian International Exhibition jury included Malcolm Groom and Raymond Kelly. The two juries operated independently to judge 384 youth entries (1,231 frames) and 148 entries (786 frames) in the 13th Asian International Exhibition. The jury reports indicated

that the World Youth was of a particularly high standard whilst the 13th Asian International Exhibition produced some very good results, particularly for some Australians who gained Large Vermeils and will now be entitled to eight frames to the first time.

Sixteen exhibits from Australia were accepted for this combined exhibition comprising World Youth (3) and the 13th Asian International (13). The thirteen entries by Australia was the second highest of any country behind Japan with 18 entries. There were only 12 special prizes (excluding Grand Prix) of which Australia gained two, both first time special prize winners, maintaining Australia's fairly high profile in the Asian region.

Detailed reports of the World Youth Exhibition component of Bangkok 2000 from Linda Lee, the APF's Collector and Youth Liaison Officer, and Michelle Edwards, recipient of the APF Youth Award also appear in this journal.