Vietnam is planning to call upon regional parliamentary and inter-governmental organisations to set up a forum or a joint mechanism for cooperation when coping with the challenges and risks of climate change.

 

National Assembly Vice-Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong announced the news at the plenary session of the 18th meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), which opened in Singapore on Jan. 18.

 

Phong, who is head of the Vietnamese delegation, said that the annual meeting is taking place at a time when the region and world are facing a range of new challenges, including the global economic and financial crisis, climate change, natural disasters, epidemics, poverty and hunger.

 

In this context, all regional countries, especially APPF members, need to step up cooperation and enhance the efficiency of regional institutions to tackle global and regional urgent issues, she stressed.

 

The legislator said that the APPF’s role is growing in importance because it supports the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and that now is the time to draw up a more detailed mechanism for the APPF and strengthen its links with the APEC amidst the rapid changes in globalisation and difficulties resulting from the global economic crisis.

 

Phong used the occasion to thank the APPF’s members for backing Vietnam during its term on the UN Security Council in 2008-2009, as well as holding the ASEAN Chair and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) presidency this year.

 

During the five-day sitting, the parliamentary leaders from 21 APPF countries are scheduled to discuss a range of issues regarding peace, security, the economy, trade, climate change, water resources, environmental protection, responses to natural disasters, diseases and the increased dialogue between young people around the region.

 

The members of the APPF have held its annual meetings each in turn since its formation in August 1991. Vietnam hosted the 13 th meeting of the APPF in 2005.

 

(CPV/VNA)