Congratulating the IPU on the 130th founding anniversary, the Vietnamese NA leader affirmed that Vietnam has been a responsible member of the union.

The Vietnamese NA has sent its high-ranking delegations to IPU Assemblies, while engaging in all activities of the event, she noted.

She expressed thanks to all members of the union for electing Nguyen Van Giau, head of the Vietnamese NA Committee for External Relations, as Vice President of the IPU.

She told the IPU President that the Self-Assessment Toolkit for Parliaments, which evaluates the performance of parliaments in implementing Sustainable Development Goals, has been launched in Vietnam, making the country the first to translate it into its national language and popularise it among localities. 

If the toolkit is successfully applied in Son La province, the locality chosen to pilot it, the toolkit will be deployed in all other localities. The UN in Vietnam will support a project to develop sustainable agriculture to promote livelihood for locals in Son La.

Members of the Vietnamese NA will make field trips to supervise the realisation of SDGs basing on the toolkit, which is built by the IPU and the UN.

For her part, Gabriela Cuevas Barron lauded the Vietnamese NA’s active engagement in the IPU’s activities, showing her delight at Vietnam’s efforts to apply the toolkit at the national and local level.

Vietnam has become a model in implementing international commitments, she stated.

The IPU leader pointed to a number of challenges in implementing international commitments at the local level, stating that understanding the practical demand of locals is always difficult. She congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in the field with many effective initiatives.

She said she hopes to receive collaboration from the Vietnamese NA in seeking initiatives and recommendations. She also thanked Vietnam for the country’s support for her as the IPU President.-VNA