President of the Lao National Assembly Pany Yathotou attends the teleconferenced AIPA 41 on September 8 (Photo: VNA)
Vientiane (VNA) – President of the Lao National
Assembly (NA) Pany Yathotou attended the virtual 41st General Assembly of the
ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA 41), hosted by Vietnam, on September
8.
In her remarks at the first plenary session, she
said the Lao NA highly values and supports the theme of AIPA 41, “Parliamentary
Diplomacy for Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN Community”, which contributes further to
implementing the commitment of the 36th ASEAN Summit and reaffirming the
importance of close cooperation and partnership among ASEAN member states, and
between ASEAN and its dialogue partners with a view to responding to the
emerging challenges in the region.
In response to traditional and non-traditional
challenges in the region and the world, AIPA, as the representative of the
ASEAN people, has actively carried out its responsibility and played its role
through parliamentary diplomacy in fostering close cooperation and partnership
amongst fellow AIPA members, including through adopting numerous important
resolutions of the AIPA General Assembly and contributing towards the
realisation of a cohesive and responsive ASEAN Community, she noted.
These undertakings are aimed at strengthening
socio-economic and political-security cooperation at the regional level on the
basis of consensus-building, promoting public participation as well as the
whole-of-society participation in the ASEAN Community building process,
encouraging the harmonised and responsive legislations, and exchanging the best
practices and experiences in fulfilling the roles and responsibilities amongst
fellow AIPA member parliaments, particularly their role in ratifying treaties
under the ASEAN cooperation framework with a view to ensuring the effective
implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the three ASEAN Community
Blueprints 2025 towards concrete results, the top legislator of Laos added.
According to her, the ASEAN region is facing
many challenges in 2020, especially the COVID-19 outbreak and natural
disasters, which have imposed adverse impact to the socio-economic development,
stability and security in the region and the world as a whole.
Yathotou commended ASEAN for taking timely
responsive measures and particularly Vietnam, as the Chair of ASEAN, for its
successful convening of the 36th ASEAN Summit, the ASEAN Plus Three Summit on
COVID-19 and the AIPA-ASEAN Leader’s Interface earlier this year, during which
ASEAN and Plus Three leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening
cooperation in the fight against COVID-19.
Laos has translated the commitment outlined in
the Declaration of the Special ASEAN Summit on COVID-19 and focused on
surveillance, control and responsive measures against the outbreak, she said,
noting that as a result of the concerted efforts, her country have 22 confirmed
COVID-19 cases, with 21 recoveries and no deaths.
At the same time, the Lao Government has also
focused its efforts on addressing the COVID-19 economic impact by adopting
economic, fiscal and monetary policies and measures aimed at facilitating
economic recovery.
Yathotou expressed her confidence that fellow
AIPA members will continue to fulfill their role through parliamentary
diplomacy with a view to encouraging the governments of ASEAN member states to
implement measures and translate commitment of the ASEAN leaders as well as the
heads of AIPA towards tangible results.
She also took this opportunity to express her
appreciation to ASEAN member states, the bloc’s dialogue partners, friendly
countries and international organisations for the technical and financial
support and assistance, including through an exchange of information and
provision of medical supplies as well as dispatch of medical experts to Laos in
its efforts to combat COVID-19 and to recover its economy./.