The Vietnamese subcommittee to the International Assembly of French speaking Parliamentarians (APF) has attended APF executive board’s annual meeting in N’Djamena, the Republic of Tchad.

At the meeting from Feb. 1-5, Chairman of the APF’s Vietnam subcommittee Ngo Quang Xuan, who is also APF Vice President, presented his opinions on activities of the APF and the Asia-Pacific region, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Vanuatu.

The APF spoke highly of Vietnam’s proposals on measures to promote APF activities in the region, maintaining the presence and development of the French language as well as protection of cultural diversity.

The APF President and APF Secretary General stressed the role of parliamentarians and national assemblies of APF members in the Asia-Pacific region in developing the French-speaking space and asked the parliaments to consider it a common cultural space for promoting cooperation among regional countries.

Delegates to the meeting expressed their deep concern about natural calamities and political crisis in several APF member countries.

The APF executive board called for international strong help to Haiti in its post-earthquake recovery efforts and decided to set up a special fund for Haiti with donations from APF subcommittees.

The APF has paid attention to promoting cooperation with the National Assembly of Vietnam in recent years, including financial support for deputies to attend parliamentarians’ forums, organisation of French language courses and French-speaking workshops in Vietnam./.