An exhibition focusing on Vietnam’s National Assembly and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) opened at the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi on Aug. 4.

Almost 200 documents, photographs and objects selected from the archives of the Vietnam News Agency and related agencies are on display to help visitors understand Vietnam, its people and culture and the achievements it has recorded during 20 years of the renewal process, as well as the development of AIPA and the contributions made by Vietnam’s National Assembly to the organisation’s development.

The month-long exhibition is aimed at acknowledging Vietnam’s Chair of AIPA in the 2009-2010 term and the country’s hosting of the 31st AIPA General Assembly in mid-September.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Ngo Duc Manh, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for External Relations, said that since it became an official member of AIPA in 1995, Vietnam’s NA has made remarkable contributions to boosting solidarity and unification of the region, strengthened cooperation in the bloc and expanded relations with parliaments in and out of the region. Noteworthy was the successful organisation of the meeting of the AIPO General Assembly in 2002.

At meetings, Vietnam proposed many initiatives which have become AIPA resolutions, helping to improve the organisation’s effectiveness and strengthening links between AIPA and ASEAN.
AIPA now consists of nine members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Myanmar takes part as a special observer.

Manh said that taking the AIPA 31 Chair and hosting AIPA activities in the 2009-2010 term was an occasion for the Vietnamese NA to develop its role in regional inter-parliamentary cooperation and raise the country’s position and trust in the region and the world./.