Hanoi (VNA) – The National Assembly of Vietnam, as Chair of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2020, has taken initiative in organising activities of AIPA in suitable forms, despite the complexity of COVID-19.

The 41st General Assembly of AIPA (AIPA 41) slated for September 8-10 and activities during the year will be held online amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

At a recent dialogue on the Vietnamese NA and the year of Vietnam’s AIPA Chairmanship, Vu Hai Ha, head of the AIPA 41 National Secretariat and head of the AIPA 41 content sub-committee, said the Vietnamese NA will make all-out efforts to ensure the success of the AIPA 41.

Vietnam aims to raise two initiatives during AIPA 41, one of which is to set up a mechanism named young parliamentarians’ conference in order to promote the role of youths. The other one is to connect AIPA’s activities with those of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the implementation of the UN’s 2030 agenda on sustainable development.

According to Nguyen Van Giau, Chairman of the NA Committee for External Relations and deputy head of the standing board of the Organising Committee of AIPA 41, following Vietnam’s proposal, each AIPA committee will issue a resolution, and proposals sent by countries will be collected and integrated into a joint draft resolution to be submitted to the General Assembly.

Since joining the AIPA in 1995, the Vietnamese legislature has made significant contributions to the organization.  

In 2007, Vietnam proposed holding dialogues between leaders of ASEAN and AIPA, with the first informal dialogue held in 2009, and the first official one held in 2010 during Vietnam’s hosting of AIPA 31. Such dialogues have been held regularly in the framework of ASEAN and AIPA Years since then.

Another noteworthy proposal of Vietnam was that the AIPA Committee on Economic Matters should issue a resolution promoting the development of micro- and small enterprises.

The AIPA was set up in September 1977 under the name of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organisation (AIPO) with five founding members: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Its name was changed to ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2006./.