A session of the 39th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly in Singapore (Photo: VNA)
The 39th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly in Singapore wrapped up on September 6 after four working days.
The delegation of the Vietnamese National Assembly, led by Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty, along with representatives of other member states, observer nations and the ASEAN Secretariat attended the event.
At the closing session, the General Assembly approved reports submitted by the committees on political, economic, organisational and social matters and the Committee on Women Parliamentarians. They also issued a joint statement of the AIPA-39 and handed over the chairmanship of the AIPA-40 to Thailand.
Addressing the closing ceremony, Speaker of the Singaporean Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin emphasised the importance of AIPA as the bridge linking people and governments of ASEAN countries, enhancing intra-bloc cooperation and coordination to effectively cope with common challenges of the bloc.
He said the AIPA-39 discussed and reached high consensus on certain areas such as promoting the building of e-commerce and cross-border trading systems, coordinating to support small- and medium-sized enterprises in ASEAN in regional and global integration, bringing into play the role of the smart cities network, realising gender equality, and empowering women in grasping opportunities created by Industry 4.0.
Participants also agreed on some solutions to work together to deal with common challenges facing all ASEAN nations like climate change, trade protectionism, cyber security, fake news, and personal data theft.
They reiterated the bloc’s importance and central role in leading and handling cross-border security challenges, maintaining law-based regional order, and ensuring marine security.
Receiving the AIPA-40 chairmanship, President of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said his country will work closely with other member states to sustain ASEAN’s resilience and innovation trend and build ASEAN into a people-oriented and people-centred grouping.
VNA
