National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung welcomes President of the Senate of Belgium Christine Defraigne (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnamese and Belgian legislative bodies will maintain delegation exchange and experience sharing as well as working together to inspect the implementation of agreements reached by the two Governments.
These ideas were agreed during talks between National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung and visiting President of the Senate of Belgium Christine Defraigne in Hanoi on November 3.
Host and guest voiced their wish that the two sides will further their coordination at multilateral forums like the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP) and the Francophone Parliamentary Alliance (APF), and support each other in issues of mutual concern.
NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung noted with joy that the relations between the two countries and their legislative bodies have grown at all levels over the past years.
According to the top legislator, bilateral trade valued at 2.3 billion USD in 2014 and 1.1 billion USD in the first half of this year. Belgium’s total investments in Vietnam neared 500 million USD.
He expressed his hope that the two sides will continue to effectively implement inked projects and strengthen their cooperation in prioritised spheres such as logistics, high-tech, green growth and vocational training.
For her part, Christine Defraigne praised the countries’ partnership in training and health care, saying Vietnam and Belgium still boast substantial potential for cooperation.
She affirmed the Belgian Federal Parliament’s support for the relationship between Vietnam and the European Union (EU), as evidenced by Belgium’s ratification of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Vietnam and the EU.
Belgium will work to push other EU member countries to soon approve the document, she stated.
Christine Defraigne and her entourage attended the plenary session of the on-going 13th National Assembly.
They were introduced to the year-end meeting’s heavy workload, which is expected to see the ratification of 18 draft laws, give feedback on other eight draft laws and a pile of reports, and adopt resolutions on the country’s key issues.
Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung told the guests that the legislature’s meetings will focus on the building of laws to institutionalise the Constitution, which was passed in 2013 with many new contents, including a chapter on human rights.
Christine Defraigne praised Vietnam’s efforts in handling the workload, particularly discussions about the elimination of death penalty for a number of crimes and the empowerment of prosecuting agencies, courts and lawyers.
She noted her hope that Vietnam will have more female legislators in the next tenure.-VNA
