Hanoi,  (VNA) – Thanks to a very strong leadership of Vietnam’s NationalAssembly and Government and all involved parties, the APPF-26 is a greatsuccess, said Takuji Yanagimoto, Head of Japanese Delegation to APPF-26 andRepresentative Honorary President of APPF.

Hemade the comment at the press conference after the closing of the 26th annualmeeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) on January 20.

“ThisAPPF meeting was very important in the sense of the Hanoi Declaration proposedby Vietnam was adopted. We had adopted declarations in the past, like VancouverDeclaration and New Tokyo Declaration. Just like those declarations, this HanoiDeclaration has clearly defined the challenges the parliamentarians mustaddress and showed very clearly the future of actions of APPF,” said TakujiYanagimoto.

Healso lauded the significance of the adoption of the new APPF rules that madethe Meeting of Women Parliamentarians an APPF permanent event, referring to itas a historical moment of the APPF.

“Iam very happy that this change of rules was adopted here in Hanoi on the 25thanniversary of the APPF, a milestone year,” he added.

Talkingto reporters at the conference, Chairwoman of the Vietnam National AssemblyNguyen Thi Kim Ngan highlighted three successful outcomes of the APPF-26.

Shesaid the meeting saw high consensus from all APPF member countries and theparticipation of seven president-led and ten vice president-led delegations,observers from Brunei, and IPU and AIPA senior officials and Moroccanparliamentarians as guests.

Thesecond success was the adoption of the Hanoi Declaration on ‘A new vision forAsia – Pacific Parliamentary Partnership’, Ngan stressed, noting that thedocument is a very significant statement, along with 14 resolutions, which wereunanimously passed by all participating delegations.

Theannual meeting also succeeded in adopting the amendment to the APPF Rules of Procedurethat enables the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians to become an APPF permanentfeature, the top Vietnamese legislator said.

Itcould happen because of great efforts of all member states, not only Vietnam,she said, adding that Vietnam has a very clear attitude about gender equalityand has worked to promote gender equality.

Onlythree meetings of women parliamentarians were held during the 25-year historyof the APPF, first in Canada in 2016, second in Fiji last year, and third inVietnam this year.

TheAPPF-26 runs between January 18 and 21, featuring four plenary sessions on the topics of politics-security,economy-trade, regional cooperation in Asia-Pacific, and the future of APPF ,and the meeting of women parliamentarians. 

Themeeting adopted the Hanoi Declaration and a Joint Communiqué at the finalplenary session on January 20, along with 14 resolutions. The resolutions dealtwith promoting gender equality, economic growth and free trade, and joinactions on climate change response; supporting micro, small, and medium-sizedenterprises in digital age; parliamentary diplomacy for peace, security andprosperity in the region and in the world, among other  issues.

Cambodiawas chosen as host of the 27th annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific ParliamentaryForum (APPF-27), which is scheduled for January 2019 in Siem Reap. The VietnamNational Assembly will hand over the APPF chair position to its Cambodiancounterpart in May 2018.-VNA