DotAsia Board Chair Appointment – Maureen Hilyard
On June 30, 2020, at a special meeting of the Board of the DotAsia Organisation, Maureen Hilyard of the Cook Islands was elected as the Chair of the Board of DotAsia Following the introduction of organisational governance enhancements within DotAsia over the past eighteen months, this was the first election of a Chair for the DotAsia Organisation.
Based in Hong Kong, the DotAsia Organisation is the Sponsoring Organisation and Registry Operator for the .Asia Top-Level-Domain. .Asia is the official web address for the region and is open to all businesses, individuals and organizations around the globe looking to connect with Asia. .Asia domains have been registered in more than 150 countries to date.
DotAsia has a core mandate to promote Internet development and adoption in Asia but since 2017, DotAsia registrants have not needed to have a pre-existing Asian address. This makes it easier for companies outside of the region who want to register a .Asia domain to connect with businesses in Asia or because they have an Asian-related business outside of Asia. A further development in 2019 was that China finally gave DotAsia a license to sell its domain within China.
Since the launch of the “.Asia” in 2006, DotAsia has contributed funds and support to many different Community Projects such as the Asia-Pacific Regional IGF and Net Mission.