Our correspondent Van Nghiep Chuc reviews the outcome of the 35th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in Vientiane, Laos.
In the past several days, the Laotian capital, Vientiane, has seen busy working sessions of participants at the AIPA-35 Assembly in an atmosphere of unity, understanding and mutual trust. The assembly adopted many resolutions on important issues of practical interest to each country and the entire region, including the Ebola outbreak, security and politics, economic and cultural co-operation, the participation of women parliamentarians and a number of other issues relating to the AIPA organisation. The AIPA-35 General Assembly agreed to enhance the effectiveness of its operations as an expression of determination to work towards the ASEAN Community in 2015.
Ebola threat on the agenda
The meeting of the AIPA-35 Committee on Social Matters focused on the Ebola epidemic with representatives highlighting the danger of the outbreak and the need for urgent measures to cope with it. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is worsening and may get out of control. According to the World Health Organisation, this is the largest Ebola outbreak over the past 40 years and it has so far claimed the lives of more than 2,600 people among nearly 5,300 cases. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as the number of cases doubled every three weeks, the world needed to increase the current amount of support by 20 times to about US$1 billion so that the outbreak can be dealt with effectively in the next six months.
It is obvious that healthcare plays a critically important role in the ASEAN Community, which, with a population of 600 million and GDP of US$3 trillion, is emerging as a strong and dynamic region in the world economy. The ASEAN Community is worried that if the outbreak occurred, it would seriously hurt economic growth and cause disorder in the region. Parliamentarians of AIPA member countries called on ASEAN to act immediately to counter the spread of the outbreak. For the time being, countries should implement an epidemic prevention and control strategy quickly, identify gaps and challenges facing the fight against the disease, including sharing information, and strengthening capacity of health workers and monitoring systems.
Under the chairmanship of Doctor Phonethep Phonlsena, Chairman of the Lao
Assembly’s Social and Cultural Affairs Committee, participants called on parliaments and governments of ASEAN member countries to strengthen management and prevention of non-infectious diseases. Statistical data show that the percentage of those killed by these diseases account for 60% (about 36 million people) of total deaths each year, about 80% of which live in low and middle income countries.
Green growth
In the past several days, the Vietnamese delegation, headed by National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong, made active contributions to the AIPA-35 General Assembly and achieved many results. During discussions about a resolution to foster green growth in ASEAN, the Vietnamese delegation appealed to AIPA to strengthen law-formulation and policy-making capacity of State agencies when forming development strategies aligned with green growth. In addition, Vietnam called on ASEAN members to strengthen co-operation within the bloc as well as co-operation between ASEAN and its partners in protecting biodiversity and a sustainable development environment. AIPA-35’s resolution on this sector called on ASEAN members to develop a legal framework and comprehensive co-ordination mechanism in natural resource management and protection co-operation. In addition, ASEAN was urged to strengthen co-operation in science and technology between old and new member countries through greater co-ordination.Chairman of the Lao NA’s Economics, Planning and Finance Committee Souvanpheng Bouphanouvong affirmed that green growth is the mainstream trend in the world. The core in each country’s development is paying attention to both economic growth and environmental protection. He added that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic would like to foster the co-operation mechanism in the region with regard to exploiting and protecting natural resources such as land, water, mines, forest and energy.
It is remembered that last year, Vietnam’s initiative to establish an ASEAN green growth centre received strong support from parliamentary delegations in the region. At this AIPA-35 General Assembly, Vietnamese NA deputies proposed mobilising a variety of resources to ensure finance for the establishment and operation of the centre as well as including the initiative in the AIPA agenda.
Leaving Vientiane with friendly and hospitable friends and colleagues, we have a feeling that the recently concluded AIPA-35 General Assembly is a concrete and vivid expression of unity, friendship, co-operation and a shared wish of Southeast Asian parliaments, governments and people for an increasingly prosperous and sustainably developed ASEAN.
Nhan Dan
