English missionary William Carey started his work in the Dutch controlled Serampore north of Calcutta, India in 1793, initially focussing on Bible translation, preaching, teaching, and the founding of schools.

[5] The APBF was formed in the then British colony of Hong Kong in 1972 as the Asian Baptist Federation (ABF).

[8] It adopted its current name in 2007 after a resolution was approved during the ABF Congress held in the city of Chiang Mai, Thailand from 2 May to 6 May 2007.

[9] The APBF represents almost 60 Baptist denominations (known as conventions or unions) from 20 different countries, encompassing almost 30,000 congregations with more than 5 million baptized believers.

[9] The single largest member of the APBF is the Myanmar Baptist Convention which claims more than 1.1 million baptized believers.