Manila(VNA) - Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Tong Thi Phongsuggested measures to promote the role of the ASEAN Inter-ParliamentaryAssembly (AIPA) at the first plenary session of the 38th AIPA General Assembly(AIPA-38) which opened in Manila, the Philippines, on September 16.

Phong said 2017 is a special year that marks the50th founding anniversary of ASEAN and 40 years since AIPA’sinception. The AIPA-38 takes place amid complex global and regionaldevelopments such as territorial disputes, terrorism, and increasingnon-traditional security issues like environment, epidemics, climate change,and growing trade protectionism, which have directly or indirectly impactedsecurity, unanimity and economic growth in Southeast Asia, she said.

In that context, the AIPA, along with ASEAN,should continually uphold the spirit of solidarity and unanimity and raise thesense of responsibility to effectively respond to challenges that threatenpeace, security and stability in the region while effectively andcomprehensively contributing to the building of the ASEAN Community, Phongnoted.

In the new development stage of both ASEAN andAIPA, the bilateral cooperation need to be reformed in a more connected,practical and effective manner, focusing on promoting the ASEAN Community’sdevelopment on all three pillars so that the Community could become a momentumfor maintaining peace, stability and sustainable growth in the region.

The cooperation shouldalso concentrate on enhancing ASEAN’s solidarity and improving the awareness ofthe ASEAN Community; and consolidating and bringing into play ASEAN’s centralrole in the regional architecture, the official said.

She asked the AIPA, together with ASEAN, workharder to raise public awareness of AIPA’s importance, activities and capacityof contributing to the ASEAN Community building and of realising regionalpeople’s interests.

The AIPA should further boost parliamentarydiplomacy’s role in state diplomatic activities among ASEAN members and betweenASEAN and the bloc’s partners. It should increase the effectiveness oflaw-making cooperation in order to facilitate ASEAN cooperation in all spheres,from politics-security, economy to culture-society. The assembly needs toprovide the ASEAN governments with feasible solutions in order to achieve thebloc’s set targets.

Phong proposed that the AIPA help promoteASEAN’s central role in the region through upholding the grouping’s conductprinciples and standards and compliance with international law, strengtheningthe member parliaments’ connectivity, and reinforcing ties with otherparliamentary cooperation mechanisms in the region and the world.

The Vietnamese legislative leader called for theimproved efficiency and practicality of meetings between AIPA representativesand ASEAN leaders, thus bolstering coordination between parliaments andgovernments of the ASEAN nations.

It is also necessary to reform and improveAIPA’s operations, including improving coordination mechanisms between the AIPASecretariat in Jakarta and AIPA secretariats in the member countries, as wellas between the AIPA Secretariat and the ASEAN Secretariat, she added.

The AIPA-38 is taking place from September 16-19with the participation of representatives from the 10 ASEAN member countriesand 11 observer nations.

The AIPA members areset to discussed a number of critical issues, including the humanitarian crisisin Myanmar, cooperation in solving food security-related issues, and promotionof health care for female workers.-VNA