Top legislator welcomes ASEAN official

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung on Feb. 23 met with visiting Secretary General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Antonio V. Cuenco.
National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung on Feb. 23 met withvisiting Secretary General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly(AIPA) Antonio V. Cuenco.

Hung praised the effortsof the AIPA Secretary General during his tenure, which he said havecontributed to enhancing inter-parliamentary coordination between ASEANcountries.

Vietnam ’s National Assembly isready to partner with the AIPA Secretariat in preparation for the AIPAmeeting scheduled to be held at the end of 2012, Hung said.

Vietnam also hopes that the AIPA Secretariat will ceaselesslyperfect and improve its operations to meet heightened demand in thecontext where both AIPA and ASEAN are making efforts to build the ASEANCommunity by 2015.

The top legislator expressed hiswish that the AIPA Secretary General will continue to act as a conduitbetween the Vietnam NA and AIPA members and the AIPA observers as well.

For his part, Antonio V. Cuenco suggested theVietnam NA actively engage in placing cooperation in preventing wildanimal trafficking onto the agenda of the upcoming AIPA meeting.

He said he believed that with Vietnam ’s support, the cooperation will reap more effective results in ASEAN.

He expressed his hope that Vietnam and ASEAN members will engagein stronger actions in establishing agencies that oversee and preventwild animal trafficking, contributing to protecting nature.

On the same day, NA Chairman Hung held talks with FreelandFoundation’s Executive Director Steve Galster, during which Hungapplauded the foundation’s proposals in drafting a joint ASEANregulation on the prevention of wild animal trafficking.

Vietnam put forward concrete and strict regulations and took partin related international conventions, Hung said, affirming Vietnam ’ssupport for the battle.-VNA

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