Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue chairs a consultation with experts on socio-economic development on September 27. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The first Global Parliamentary Meeting on Achieving the SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs) is jointly being held via videoconference from September 28-30 by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the House of Representatives of Indonesia.
Themed “Turning the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemicinto opportunities for parliaments to achieve the SDGs”, the event saw the attendance of about 130 parliamentarians from nearly 60 IPU memberparliaments.
Speaking at the event, Permanent member of the Vietnamese National Assembly’s Committee for External Relations Pham Phu BinhBinh said amid difficulties andchallenges caused by COVID-19, parliaments need to ensure effectiveresponse to the pandemic at national and regional levels to speed up theimplementation of the SDGs.
Over the past time, the Vietnamese legislature has adopted theIPU’s set of self-assessment tools to review the performance of the SDGs, he said.
The NA’s Committee for External relations built reports onthe promotion of the SDGs by NA agencies while the NA Standing Committee reviewedthe progress of carrying out the SDGs at national and local levels, he said.
Discussions at the event focused on the role ofparliaments in achieving the SDGs amid the pandemic, the delivery of commitmentsto “leaving no one behind”, and prioritised investment in people’s health care.
Participants stressed that parliaments shouldeffectively tap internal resources and promote cooperation with countries in implementing the SDGs.
Speaker of the Indonesian House ofRepresentatives Puan Maharani urged parliaments tostep up the sharing of vaccines and transfer of vaccine production technology.
The international community needs to promote policies and measures to recoverthe economy in the post-pandemic period, she said./.
