“Overcoming differences and putting forth faster and stronger actions”

Here is the full text of the Vietnamese parliamentary leader’s message.

"Excellency President of the National Council of Austria, Excellency President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Distinguished delegates,

On behalf of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the President of the National Council of Austria and the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) for your invitations to attend the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (WCSP), held in the beautiful city of Vienna. Allow me to extend my warm greetings from Vietnam to all esteemed delegates.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic gloom and grave concern across the globe, we praise the great efforts and strong will of the Austrian Parliament to host our conference. Such endeavours enable our parliamentarians, as representatives of the people, to come together physically. This is a demonstration of multilateral solidarity to join hands together in concerted efforts triumphing over the COVID-19 for peace, economic recovery and sustainable development.

Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

Given new opportunities, the world today is facing a variety of major challenges, including protracted conflicts, terrorism, transnational crime, serious impacts of climate change, food security, water resources security and widespread devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others. No single country or power can address these matters alone. To resolve these matters, we must have multilateral cooperation and joint efforts of all nations. The people, for whom we are representing, are urging us to overcome differences and put forth faster and stronger actions.

In this spirit, our parliaments need to showcase the leadership and companion roles alongside the governments. It is critical to strengthen multilateral collaboration and improve connections for increased sources, efforts, innovation and creativeness for the people and businesses to get over hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to protect lives and health of the people, sustain peace, promote recovery and sustainable development. We commend the important role of the IPU in its call for parliaments around the world to enhance international cooperation and solidarity.

As the President of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-41) in 2020 and at the 42nd AIPA General Assembly, the National Assembly of Vietnam has worked in unity with other AIPA Member Parliaments to support the Governments of ASEAN Member States in containing the COVID-19 pandemic with many practical measures in the interest of the people and businesses. The National Assembly of Vietnam has just promulgated a special Resolution enabling the Government to proactively curb COVID-19

From Vietnam’s practice, I would like to share a few thoughts as follows:

First, the people must be placed at the centre of all national efforts and policies. Peace and sustainable development could only be achievable when the basic conditions for the people, namely safety, happiness and well-being, are ensured.

Second, it is important to secure equitable vaccine access for all, consolidate resilience of health system, promote cooperation in vaccine production. It is also essential to associate national digital transformation with improving digital skills for workers, facilitate production activities, circulation of goods and services, and resume cross-border travel and movement while ensuring health safety.

Third, the Charter of the United Nations, international law and effective multilateral mechanisms serve as the firm foundation to harmoniously combine multilateralism at the global level with the practice at the national and regional levels for the sake of peace and sustainable development. Vietnam, as a non-permeant member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for 2020-2021, has exerted its utmost efforts to promote the cohesiveness between ASEAN and the UNSC in addressing regional issues of peace, security and development.

Thank you."