Panama is set to host the very first International Boxing Association (AIBA) Continental Forum, which aims to inform National Federations of amendments to statutes and the organisation's ongoing reform process.

Continental Forums were launched to create fruitful dialogue between AIBA, Confederations and National Federations.

More than 35 American countries have confirmed their participation in the inaugural Forum, taking place in Panama City on Saturday (January 18).

AIBA will inform attendees on the changes being made to statutes, governance, competition formats, development programmes for coaches, anti-doping seminars and marketing programmes for continents and Federations.

The Forum is also set to act as a platform to discuss issues affecting each National Federation at a continental level.

Umar Kremlev, AIBA marketing commission chairman and Russian Boxing Federation President, proposed the idea of holding forums.

"National Federations are the foundation of AIBA, they take active part in the reforms," he said.

"We are glad to offer our experience and ideas to make the work of AIBA more efficient."

Future Continental Forums in Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania are scheduled to take place next month.

"I welcomed the idea of the AIBA marketing commission chairman, Umar Kremlev, to conduct such events," said AIBA Interim President Mohamed Moustahsane.

"Forums would become a huge platform to listen to each other, to find a lot of solutions and unite people.

"We've never done that before, and now we want to do it and relaunch all the relations with National Federations.

"We should start with the open dialogue and be more attentive to all needs.

"Step by step we are going to build a better future of our sport."

AIBA is battling to regain Olympic recognition, having been stripped of the right to organise the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020 earlier this year.

Moustahsane replaced former AIBA President Gafur Rakhimov as the temporary leader of the organisation in March.

Source