From 29 to 30 October 2026, the 6th Meeting of the 6th Standing Council of the World Association of Abacus and Mental Arithmetic (hereinafter referred to as WAAMA) was held in Hong Kong, China. Ou Wenhan, President of WAAMA, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Relevant standing council members and representatives were present, and Cheng Beiping, Secretary-General of WAAMA, presided over the meeting.

Ou Wenhan pointed out that abacus and mental arithmetic education institutions from multiple countries and regions have recently expressed their intention to join WAAMA, which fully demonstrates the continuous growth of WAAMA’s international influence. Membership admission reviews shall be conducted strictly in accordance with the Constitutions of Association. While expanding the membership base, WAAMA shall improve service quality and continuously enhance its international appeal.

Ou Wenhan stated that for the global development of abacus and mental arithmetic, priority shall be given to the following key tasks: build a robust membership team to consolidate the foundation for development; strengthen academic leadership, focus on research projects concerning artificial intelligence empowering abacus and mental arithmetic education, and demonstrate the contemporary value of abacus and mental arithmetic in enlightening and educating people through solid research outcomes; pursue gradual and optimized progress, steadily advance the reform of WAAMA competitions, safeguard competition fairness, streamline organizational efficiency and improve participants’ experience; adopt a service-oriented approach, explore and roll out international teacher training programmes, and gradually foster a cohort of distinguished abacus and mental arithmetic trainers recognized by WAAMA.

The meeting examined and approved the membership applications of three entities: G’UNCHA MENTAL ARITHMETIC CENTER LLC (Uzbekistan), Towhid Private Educational Institutions (Afghanistan) and The National Museum of Chinese Zhusuan (China). It conducted preliminary discussions on the proposed addition of new standing council members, and reviewed the optimized plan for WAAMA abacus and mental arithmetic competitions, the research scheme on the implementation pathway of artificial intelligence empowering abacus and mental arithmetic education, as well as the international teacher training programme.

Standing council members present held in-depth exchanges on all agenda items. Standing Council Member Lisa Wang (Canada), drawing on her 21 years of experience in abacus and mental arithmetic education, proposed that artificial intelligence be leveraged to empower abacus and mental arithmetic education, and put forward initiatives on an open-source abacus and mental arithmetic platform, intelligent trainer development and smart cloud-based competitions. Standing Council Member Loani Tahitu'a (Tonga), based on local abacus and mental arithmetic teaching practices in Tonga, shared the status of compulsory abacus courses for Grades 3 to 6 in Tongan primary schools, and voiced practical demands for developing online micro-lesson resources, supporting offline training and designing abacus and mental arithmetic practice software. Other participating representatives also offered constructive suggestions on competition optimization and teacher training content.

During the meeting, participants visited Association of Professional Abacus Education (HK) Limited, Hong Kong SAR, China and Creative Abacus Association, Hong Kong SAR, China to gain first-hand insights into abacus and mental arithmetic education practices in the Hong Kong SAR, China, and a special forum was organised.