The Vietnamese delegation attending the 142nd IPU Assembly (Photo: VNA) Addressing the virtual opening of the 142nd IPU Assemblyon May 26 (Hanoi time), which is themed “Overcoming the pandemic today andbuilding a better tomorrow: the role of parliaments,” Man suggestedthat the IPU should call on countries with advantages in COVID-19 vaccineproduction to support developing and pandemic-hit countries to gain fair and timely access to vaccinesources and modern medical equipment atreasonable prices.
Besides, IPU member parliaments need to urgently completetheir national policies in responding to the pandemic, promptly allocate budgets and strengthen supervision over the accountability of the governments whileimplementing crisis settlement programmes to go through the pandemic, he said.
The Vietnamese representative also suggested the World Health Organisation(WHO) and countries foster their partnership and collaboration intransferring vaccine production technology and training to improv COVID-19 response capacity.
Noting that COVID-19 has posed adverse impacts tosocio-economic and politic situation, security and order in many countries acrossthe world, while causing difficulties and challenges in building a peaceful,green and prosperous globe, Man shared Vietnam’s strategy in coping with thepandemic.
He said that right from the first days COVID-19 enteredVietnam, the country has deployed drastic, synchronous and timely measures withthe engagement of the whole political system and the determination andconsensus of all residents.
Vietnam has implemented the “dual goals” of effectivelycontrolling the pandemic to ensure public health and recovering and boostingeconomic development at the same time, securing social welfare in the “newnormal”, said Man.
It has applied the 5K message which comprises khautrang (face masks), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distancing), khongtu tap (no gatherings), and khai bao y te (health declarations), he said,affirming that the country has basically put the pandemic under good control,ensuring stability and socio-economic development and winning confidence fromlocal residents and compliment from international friends.
In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese NA has always accompanied the Government by promptly allocating budgets to pandemic response and issuingmeasures and policies supporting people and enterprises, while sharing itsexperience in dealing with COVID-19 at multilateral inter-parliamentary forumsand taking practical actions to show solidarity with parliaments of othercountries such as offering them masks and medical suppplies, said Man.
In his opening remark, IPU President Duarte Pacheco saidthat the official opening of an IPU Assembly is a time whenparliamentarians from around the world come together to share a common goal and commitment to inter-parliamentary dialogue and cooperation. This is also the moment when our values, ideas and aspirations converge into a strong impulse tostrengthen peace and representative democracy, he said.
More than 3 million people have lost their lives to theCOVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that together with a climate crisis and arecession on a scale not seen in nearly a century, the pandemic has reversedsome of the great progress made in human development. Decades of work has beenerased in a blink of an eye, and millions of people all over the world havefallen again into extreme poverty.
Access to vaccines is too fragmented, uneven and slow, hesaid, underlining that over 1.32 billion vaccine doses have been given topeople across the globe but much more needs to be done to bridge the wide gapsbetween vaccination programmes in different countries and regions.
The IPU President called on all countries to make the mostof the IPU, particularly in these troubled times.
This organisation has lived through many turbulent periodsin the past century but has always stood by its primary purpose of being theglobal organisation of national parliaments, where political dialogue, parliamentarydiplomacy and cooperation can fuel the solutions for a better tomorrow, hestated./.
VNA
