Vietnam attends IPU's virtual meeting on sustainable development

Hanoi (VNA) – A Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) delegation led by Vice Chairman of the NA's Economic Committee Duong Quoc Anh attended a virtual meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)’s Standing Committee on Sustainable Development on May 18.

Held as part of the ongoing 142nd IPU Assembly, the meeting highlighted a theme of mainstreaming digitalisation and the circular economy to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly responsible consumption and production.

Speaking at the event, the Vietnamese delegation praised the theme, which also reflects a resolution of the IPU. With 29 notes and 36 orientations, this is a comprehensive, ambitious, but extremely necessary resolution, especially in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

To realise the document, IPU member parliaments need to raise general public awareness of the resolution with communications activities intensified firstly targeting their agencies, then the Government and the people, said the delegation.

According to Vietnam’s speech presented at the meeting, education plays an important role in equipping people with circular economy knowledge to put it into practice and helps shape responsible consumption habits early on. At the same time, the ability to use digital tools and skills, and the readiness to implement digitalisation must also be considered one of the basic contents of the educational programmes at all levels.

As the resolution points out, the IPU should strengthen cooperation with its member parliaments who are members of other organisations, including regional parliamentary ones, to collect evidence and information on the circular economy, environment and digitisation in order to build a guiding framework for further parliamentary actions.

The IPU should also actively create an official forum for member parliaments to continue to learn from each other's practices and experience as well as further increase the support from the parliaments of donor countries./.