Welcoming Remarks by the Chair of APCC Steering Committee

The APCC (Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications), which is an international forum focusing on communications and information technology, has been hosted in 10 Asia-Pacific (AP) countries since 1993, i.e. Korea (1993, 2000, 2006, 2012), Japan (1995, 2001, 2008, 2015), China (1999, 2004, 2009, 2018), Australia (1997, 2005, 2017), Indonesia (2002, 2013, 2016), Malaysia (2003, 2011), Thailand (2007, 2014), Singapore (1998), New Zealand (2010), and Vietnam (2019). Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, we have to postpone the 26th APCC from 2020 to 2021, and adopt the virtual mode of sharing visions and exchanging ideas across the borders. Like many participants, I am very grateful to the IEEE Malaysia ComSoc/VTS Joint Chapter and IX Telecom and Anritsu for organizing and sponsoring our conference, respectively. At this difficult period, we are very impressed by the local organizing committee for their courage, perseverance, dedication, teamwork, effort, and patience. They make APCC 2021 so special and memorable for all of us.