A session of the 39th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly in Singapore (Photo: VNA)

The Vietnamese National Assembly’s delegation, led by Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty, attended the event.At the closing session, the General Assembly approved reports submitted by the committees on political, economic, organisational and social matters, and the Committee on Women Parliamentarians. They also issued a joint statement of the AIPA-39 and handed over chairmanship of AIPA-40 to Thailand.

AIPA-39 reached a consensus on promoting the building of e-commerce and cross-border trading systems, coordinating to support small and medium-sized enterprises in ASEAN in regional and global integration, bringing into play the role of the smart cities network, realising gender equality, and empowering women in grasping opportunities created by Industry 4.0.

Participants reiterated the bloc’s importance and central role in handling cross-border security challenges, maintaining law-based regional order, and ensuring marine security.

Receiving the AIPA-40 chairmanship, President of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand PornpetchWichitcholchai, said Thailand will work closely with other member states to sustain ASEAN’s resilience and innovation trend, and build ASEAN into a people-oriented and people-centred group.