FW: [LaoFAB] Re: Asian, European parliamentarians meet in Vientiane

[NPA Network]

 

 

From: lao...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lao...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David Blake
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 02:35 PM
To: lao...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [LaoFAB] Re: Asian, European parliamentarians meet in Vientiane

 

Isn't this meeting taking place on Don Chan? If so, I would respectfully suggest that refraining from building inter-regional meeting venues on the fertile land of poor farmers and kicking them off their ancestral land in the process, might be quite a good way of ensuring food (and land - Finland!) security for some less advantaged members of Lao society. Or is that a little too close to home to be worth considering at ASEP? I hope the esteemed delegates appreciate who has actually borne the cost of their meeting venue/accommodation amidst the platitudes of concern for food security.  

 

Anybody on LaoFAB invited to attend this meeting? Reflections from the floor?

On Thursday, 4 October 2012 04:57:44 UTC+1, Laofab news poster wrote:

*Asian, European parliamentarians meet in Vientiane *

Vientiane Times, 4 Oct 2012

Parliamentarians from Asia and Europe met yesterday in Vientiane to
discuss ways to ensure food security, public debt management and
sustainable development.

Hundreds of delegates from 27 countries, the European Parliament and
three international organisations gathered in the Lao capital for the
two-day 7th Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP7).

The theme of this year's ASEP meeting is ‘The Asia-Europe
Parliamentary Partnership for Sustainable Development'.

Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong ( seventh left ), Ms Pany
Yathortou ( eighth left ) and ASEP7 delegates pose for a group photo.

In her opening remarks, ASEP7 Chairperson and President of the Lao
National Assembly, Ms Pany Yathortou, announced that participants will
focus on finding common solutions to these three urgent issues.

Solutions are being sought to ensure food security in the context of
climate change, enhance Asian-European cooperation in public debt
management for sustainable development, and bolster the Asia-Europe
partnership to improve the response to natural disasters.

“All of these urgent issues constitute a challenge for the socio-
economic development of both continents, and require us to define
appropriate policy and timely measures,” Ms Pany said.

In recent years, many countries have suffered from weather extremes
such as flooding, storms, tsunamis, and drought.

“All these constitute a threat to human well-being. At the same time,
the frequent occurrence of economic and financial crises in the last
10 years has had an adverse effect on the security and economic and
financial stability of each continent and many regions of the world to
some extent,” she said.

All of these concerns demand that meeting participants engage in
collective discussions to seek solutions, she added.

In his welcoming remarks, Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong said he
hoped the ASEP7 meeting would address ways to deepen cooperation to
bring prosperity to the two continents' 4.7 billion people, who make
up 65 percent of the world's population.

“I believe this meeting will seek ways and means to further enhance
economic and trade cooperation, aimed at harnessing our respective
untapped potentials,” Prime Minister Thongsing said.

“Most urgent is the need to step up cooperation in areas of
agricultural production associated with food security programmes. If
we do not take sound and collective action to deal with such
realities, our peoples will face a food shortage that might turn out
to be one of the root causes of instability.”

Mr Thongsing suggested that meeting participants collectively study
and search for environmentally-friendly sustainable development
schemes by promoting mutually beneficial cooperation and exploiting
each country's resp ective potentials and strengths.

In addition, he said the ASEP partner countries should help each other
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Also speaking at the opening ceremony was the Head of the Belgian
delegation, Senator Rik Torfs, who touched upon the importance of the
issues to be tabled at this year's meeting.

He recalled discussions on the financial and economic crisis during
the ASEP6 talks, held in Brussels two years ago when Belgium hosted
the meeting.

“Today, this remains a topic of high importance, considering the
ongoing crisis in the euro zone and beyond,” Mr Torfs said.

Although a lot has been done to address the ongoing financial crisis,
the senator said there was still a long way to go to remedy the
situation.

He said all parliaments represented at the meeting play an important
role in addressing the crisis. “The importance of parliaments cannot
be underestimated. They must play an oversight role in coordination
with governments.”

The outcomes of the ASEP7 meeting will be submitted to the 9th Asia-
Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit next month, for heads of state and
government of ASEM member countries to take into account.


The ASEP 7 meeting officially opened in Vientiane yesterday with 250
delegates in attendance from Asia and Europe. At the opening ceremony,
President of the National Assembly of the Lao PDR, Ms Pany Yathortou
who is also President of ASEP 7, delivered an opening speech, which
was followed by a welcoming speech by Prime Minister Thongsing
Thammavong and a speech by Mr Rik Torfs, the Head of the Belgian
parliament delegation, which hosted the ASEP 6 meeting.

The full text of each speech is as follows:

Ms Pany Yathortou.



Today, I feel greatly privileged and very pleased to have the
opportunity to welcome you to Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. At the
outset, on behalf of the National Assembly of Lao PDR, may I cordially
convey my warmest regards, wholehearted friendship, and sincere thanks
to all of you for accepting our invitation to attend today's ceremony.
I highly appreciate the participation of Speakers, Deputy Speakers,
Heads of Delegations, Members of ASEP Parliaments, Observers as well
as all the distinguished guests of the host country. I would also like
to seize this opportunity to whole-heartedly express my
congratulations towards Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, and Russia
for their accession to ASEM in Belgium two years ago and I earnestly
hope that the parliaments of these countries will become full members
of ASEP in the near future.

Honorable Delegates, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the context of the world's socio-economic development where
sustainable development has become a common trend of the nations over
the world, strengthening relationship and enhancing cooperation
between the two continents, Asia and Europe, are of common interests
for all countries. The unanimously agreed selection of “The Asia-
Europe Parliamentary Partnership for Sustainable Development” as main
theme of this ASEP-7 Meeting demonstrates that ASEP is meeting the
requirement of the new era and attaches a great importance to the
nations' aspirations for better life based on mutual understanding and
cooperation so as to achieve prosperity in all parts of the globe.

Ancient civilisations of Europe and Asia have been transmitted for
thousand years.

Both continents enjoyed a long tradition of exchanges of visits and
trade. This privileged relationship has been used by both continents
as a driving force for fostering their development. At present time,
Europe has become an active partner and supporter of the development
cooperation in many countries in Asia, including Lao PDR. Both
continents, Asia and Europe, constitute a synergy and play a crucial
role in maintaining world's peace and regional and global development.
Asia, with its large population, is abundant of natural resources and
is becoming a region with strong and rapid economic growth. Europe is
composed of many developed countries with modem scientific and
technological advancement and has extensive experience in inter-
country integration. In the era of globalisation with a number of
advantages and progress in the field of transportation and
communications, Asia and Europe are confronting an opportunity for
mutual reliance, to supplement each other and join hands for further
building their countries. Regular exchanges of visits between
Governments' leaders, business people and civil societies within the
framework of Asia-Europe Summit Meeting or ASEM, the Asia-Europe
Parliamentary Partnership or ASEP, the Asia-Europe Business Forum or
AEBF and the Asia-Europe

People Forum or AEPF, have strategic importance and contribute to
further enhancing mutual cooperative relations for the benefits of
people from two continents. Being an inter-parliamentarian
organisation between the two continents, ASEP is part of the mechanism
for Asia-Europe partnership, provides a platform for meetings between
parliaments, creates favourable conditions for exchange of views and
systematically conduct parliamentary diplomacy between Asia and
Europe. From each ASEP meeting, ASEP membership has been enlarged with
now 47 member countries and this number is expected to increase in the
near future. ASEP has recorded significant achievement in many areas
thus enhancing mutual understanding of people. Members of Parliament
are seen as representatives of people who also exchange visits,
cooperate and provide mutual assistance in tackling common concerns
not only for the benefits of people from two continents but also for
the benefits of entire world.

In current situation where the world is undergoing complex and rapid
unpredictable changes, in parallel with favourable conditions for the
increasing development cooperation between the two continents, Asia
and Europe, we are also confronting a number of challenges such as the
economic and financial crisis; climate change which severely affects
food security; the increasing development gap between the developed,
the developing and least developed countries.

Distinguished Delegates, Honourable Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the past years, our globe has been confronting the phenomenon of
climate changes and many countries, including Lao PDR, have suffered
from adverse impacts from natural calamities such as flooding, storms,
tsunami, drought, global warming, melting icebergs from the North Pole
and sea level rise. All these constitute a threat to human well-being.
At the same time, the frequent cycle of world's economic and financial
crisis in the last ten years has adverse effect on the security and
the economic and financial stability of each continent and many
regions of the world to some extent. Therefore, at our meeting, we
will focus on finding common solutions to the following urgent issues
through ASEP:

§ Ensuring food security in the context of climate change

§ Enhancing the Asia-Europe cooperation in public debt management for
sustainable development

§ Asia-Europe partnership for the increasing participation of civil
societies in handling with natural disasters

All these urgent issues constitute a challenge for the socio-economic
development of both continents which require us to define appropriate
policy and timely measures. I am confident that during the meeting in
the next two days, in the spirit of cooperation and with a high sense
of responsibility of all delegates and parliamentarians, our meeting
will certainly reach its set objectives however, on behalf of
chairperson of this ASEP-7, allow me to share some view:

1. For food security in the context of climate change

As we are all aware, food security does not have a direct impact on
the economy and the livelihood of our people but it also affects peace
and the security of nations to some extent. Against this background, I
am of the view that the cooperation amongst countries in food security
is vital and a common strategy should elaborated based on mutual
benefits and the balance between the development and environment
protection. For the developing countries, they need to have a strategy
for their agricultural products in line with land policy, access to
water resources, capital, marketing and technology. In addition, a
favourable environment for international trade should be created for
fair market-oriented agricultural products. Furthermore, the
international community should put in place a cooperation mechanism
for food security management in particular for effective food
production, food reserves and distributions chains. My National
Assembly has encouraged the government to pay attention to promoting
researches and developing seeds of agricultural products adaptable to
the changes of climate through the cooperation between Asia and
Europe.

2. With regard to public debt management for sustainable development

Public debt has become an issue that threatens the world's economic
and financial stability. Therefore, the cooperation between the two
continents in addressing this issue is vital for ensuring sustainable
development. In this regard, the parliament of each country has the
duty to encourage its government to review and maintain their
financial policy along with elaborating medium and long term public
debt management to build up a network for exchange of information and
experiences in drafting comprehensive and consistent legislation while
strengthening the capacity of different public institutions
responsible for overseeing the government in public debt management

3. For Asia-Europe partnership in intensifying the involvement of
civil society in handling with natural disasters

Our members of parliaments shall enhance the cooperation between Asia
and Europe in order to concretely streamline natural disaster risk
reduction tasks into all sectors of the socio-economic development
plan by assigning the communities as centres of security cultures,
thus ensuring the sustainable development and readiness in allocating
resources for timely responses to any natural disasters.

All these suggestions could be effectively realised only if policy and
legislation are in place therefore enacting legislation remains the
important foundations which we should carefully and thoroughly examine
to the largest extent possible.

As ASEP member, the Lao National Assembly always supports the Asia-
Europe Cooperation and Partnership and will do its utmost to
contribute to every success of ASEP. We stand ready to enhance the
friendly relation and cooperation for the development of Parliaments
of all countries from Asia and Europe in order to elevate the quality
and efficiency of ASEP and to continuously disseminate the information
about ASEP to Lao people

On this occasion, on behalf of all Lao ethnic people, I would like to
express my gratitude to the ASEP member countries for their support,
assistance and cooperation which created favourable conditions for Lao
National Assembly to successfully fulfil its international
obligations. I earnestly hope that all the topics of discussions at
this ASEP meeting will be submitted to the governments of member
countries for further consideration aiming at contributing to the
attainment of the objectives of peace, cooperation and sustainable
development.

On this final note, may I extend to all participants of this meeting
my best wishes of good health, enjoyable visit and activities in Lao
PDR and I would like to request you to spare your time contemplating
and familiarising yourself with the beauty and richness of the nature,
the diversity of long-standing cultures and fine traditions of Lao
ethnic people.

I wish the ASEP-7 to be crowned with brilliant success and I
officially declare the ASEP-7 open from now on.



I thank you.





Mr Thongsing Thammavong.



Today, it gives me a high privilege and great pleasure to attend the
official opening ceremony of the 7th ASEP meeting which is taking
place in Vientiane Capital.

On this auspicious and historical landmark occasion, I would like to
wholeheartedly extend on behalf of the Government of the Lao People's
Democratic Republic and in my capacity as Chair of the 9th ASEM
Summit, a cordial welcome to the House Speakers and representatives
coming from Asia and Europe to the 7th ASEP meeting. It is also my
great pleasure to welcome new ASEP members from Australia, New
Zealand, Myanmar and Russia.

The wide participation of the parliamentarians from the old member
States and the four new member States in the 7th ASEP meeting is a
clear testimony to the good partnership so happily existed between our
parliaments. It also reaffirms the increasing growth of ASEP as well
as the privilege that you all have bestowed upon the Lao PDR to host
the ASEP meeting for the first time, and we would like to thank you
all to that end.

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Aware as we are, ASEP is the representative body of the rights and
interests of more than 4.7 billion people in Asia and Europe which
accounts for 65 percent of the world population. Since time
immemorial, our peoples from the two continents have manifested a
strong aspiration to live together in a cordial and friendly
environment based on a spirit of mutual understanding and mutual
assistance while promoting cooperation for development leading towards
shared prosperity.

In this regard, the Government of the Lao PDR is of the view that the
present ASEP meeting should focus its deliberation on issues that
matter most to the peoples of our two continents. First and foremost,
I believe that the meeting shall seek ways and means to further
enhance economic and trade cooperation aimed at harnessing respective
untapped potentials. Most urgently is to step up cooperation in
agricultural production that should be associated with food security
programs. This is the most pressing issue before us given the
abnormality of climate change. If we do not take a sound and
collective action to deal with such reality, our peoples would face
food shortage that might turn out to be one of the root causes for
instability.

Furthermore, I am of the view that the current ASEP meeting has to
find out solutions to meet the basic needs of the people namely
ensuring improved and secure living conditions in order to bring about
prosperity to the peoples of our two continents. To reach that lofty
goal, we have to deploy all our efforts and wisdom to devise
development and cooperation schemes in line with the specificities of
the contemporary world that is an era of global integration.

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our planet is currently hit by the financial crisis affecting both
Asia and Europe. In the past, leaders of many countries and
institutions have held several meetings at different levels in order
to jointly find appropriate solutions. In this regard, I propose that
at the 7th ASEP meeting, the participants shall collectively study and
search for sustainable and sustained development schemes through
promoting mutually-beneficial cooperation, exploiting respective
potentials and strength while doing away from taking advantage of each
other. Moreover, a well-balanced and coherent linkage between socio-
economic developments with environmental protection must also be
guaranteed. One of the most pressing issues that we need to place
emphasis on is to help each other in attaining the MDGs by 2015 while
laying down necessary conditions for fostering future development that
would fall within a sustainable development-led orientation path.
Therefore, I would like to call upon the present ASEP meeting to
contribute to the study and formulation of new sustainable development
format while ensuring that the peoples of our two continents will live
in an environment of lasting prosperity and amity.

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

As you have already known, in early November of this year, the Lao PDR
will play host to the 9th ASEM Summit in Vientiane Capital. As of now,
through its own efforts as well as thanks to the assistance and
cooperation from friendly countries, all the preparatory works are
basically completed. I am confident that we will continue to enjoy the
support and constructive cooperation from ASEM member States as well
as from Asia-Europe parliaments in order to ensure that these two
important meetings hosted for the first time by the Lao PDR would be
crowned with success as envisaged thus contributing to further
enhancing cooperation between the two continents in order to bring
about the benefits and prosperity to the peoples of our two continents
while also injecting an important contribution to the cooperation for
development and wealth of the world at large.

I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the Government
of the Lao PDR consistently upholds a foreign policy of peace,
independence, friendship and cooperation. It also welcomes the
establishment of relationship, contact and sincere cooperation with
the Governments from Asia and Europe to consider issues of mutual
interest.

On this final note, I wish the 7th ASEP meeting to proceed in a
cordial and friendly atmosphere filled with mutual understanding and
brilliant success.

I wish you all happiness and a pleasant stay during your participation
in this ASEP meeting.



I thank you.





Mr Rik Torfs.

It is my honor and pleasure to be with you here today at the opening
of the 7th Conference of the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership
Meeting. As parliamentary dimension of the ASEM meetings bringing
members of parliament together from the European Union and from the
Asian countries, these ASEP meetings are key in deepening
relationships between our parliaments from the East and the West.

As you all know, the last ASEP meeting took place under Belgian
presidency in Brussels on 26 and 27 September 2010. Topics discussed
were the effective financial and economic world governance structures
on the one hand, and sustainable development in its social, economic
and environmental aspects on the other hand.

The Belgian presidency insisted during the meeting on the idea that
all European and Asian citizens need to have the same rights and
obligations in the fields of health, education, solidarity and local
government. Moreover, the essential role of women in society was
stressed. Finally, the trilateral partnership was developed between
European, Asian and African countries, in which interparliamentary
contacts can guarantee the move of all countries towards democracy.

Concerning the first topic of the Brussels meeting, extensive
discussions took place concerning the creation and maintaining of
effective financial and economic world governance structures. This
debate took place against the background of the economic and financial
crisis in the ASEM countries. Today, this remains a topic of high
importance, considering the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone and beyond.
Good governance remains key in combating the world economic crisis. We
still have a long way to go, but a lot has already been done. The
importance of parliaments cannot be underestimated. They must play an
oversight role in coordination with the governments.

The need for regulation of the financial and banking sector was
emphasized. An early warning system and an information-sharing system
could be put in place. Capital guarantees were also required. All
these conditions would have to be fulfilled by all countries in the
world, including the United States.

The United States and Europe had already taken stability measures.
However, it was deemed indispensable to introduce more effective
controls over rating agencies and standardize the capital adequacy
rules of developed and emerging economies. Climate change commitments
were also required.

Finally the resources of the International Monetary Fund needed to be
expanded, and emerging economies needed to have voting rights in IMF.
The IMF loan system needed reform so that countries that needed help
could be assisted. That reform required active participation by all
countries and appropriate new regulatory instruments.

The second topic of the Brussels meeting concerned sustainable
development. It was clear that the definition for “sustainable” was
not easy to give. Reference was made to the Brundtland Report of 1987
defining sustainable development as development meeting the needs of
the present generation without compromising the ability of future
generation to meet theirs. This is sometimes conflicting with some
political decisions that tend to be short-term without taking into
account the interests of future generations. The debate during the
ASEP meeting was welcomed, since it gave the opportunity to try to
find a mutual understanding of what sustainable development is.

It was concluded that still one of the main challenges to be taken up
was a reduction in poverty. Another challenge was social cohesion,
which was experiencing great disparities and leading to upheavals. A
major challenge for Asia was to maintain sustainable economic
development. Collaboration between European and Asian countries was to
be encouraged in this respect. Cooperation, globalization of
challenges, the fact that the economic crisis and climate change
affects every population in the world, all these ideas were developed
during the debate in Brussels. The role of parliaments was crucial in
this respect, since they represent the people and pass laws.

Those of you who we had the honor of welcoming in Brussels in 2010,
remember that the discussions leading to the final declaration were
vivid and sometimes intense.

Reference was made in this final declaration to the commitment to
peace, stability and prosperity in the ASEM area, agreeing that
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and their means of
delivery, constituted a threat to international peace and security. A
nuclear weapons free world should be the objective of all.

Another important conclusion dealt with the need to enhance co-
operation in the fields of technological innovation, science and ICT
so as to narrow the digital divide and ensure sustainable development
for all ASEM Partners.

A specific paragraph was dedicated to the issue of piracy at sea,
certainly on the routes linking Europe and Asia. It seems that today,
this problem is tackled at last, and cases of piracy are becoming
rare.

Emphasis was also laid on the achievement of the so-called Millennium
Development Goals in order to allow everyone to live in dignity.
Environment was another important issue, referring among other things
to the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Gender equality was extensively discussed. This involved giving
responsibility to women, which is essential for tackling social and
economic challenges. Unfortunately, women still do not always have
equal opportunities of getting jobs, in education or health, and are
all too often victims of conflicts and war.

In this respect, I would like to quote some conclusions of the final
declaration that were subject to intense debate, but lead to firm and
strong commitments:

“ASEP Parliamentarians considered that, in order to achieve economic
development and social progress, it is necessary to respect
fundamental rights and freedoms, especially the freedom from poverty
and the right to choose the way of development.

ASEP Parliamentarians stress the need to give priority to gender
equality and empowerment of women. There must be progress on reduction
of maternal mortality and improving maternal and reproductive health.
They totally condemn the awful practice of abuse of women and children
as a weapon of war.

ASEP Parliamentarians insisted to guarantee the promotion of women's
rights in every human society. Gender equity naturally means the
promotion of women's status in the political, economical, cultural and
social fields.

ASEP Parliamentarians affirmed that cultural diversity is a
fundamental feature of world cultures and constitutes a true source of
innovation, inspiration and progress for humankind; they also
emphasized that respect for, protection and promotion of cultural
identities and diversity, together with dialogue among civilizations,
have been a driving force for development, putting special emphasis on
gender equality.”

In my personal view these were the most important conclusions of the
2010 Brussels ASEP Meeting.

ASEP is one of the finer examples of what is commonly referred to as
parliamentary diplomacy. By bringing together the parliaments of
Europe and Asia working together on the international stage, mutual
understanding between countries can be increased and the legitimacy of
intergovernmental institutions can be reinforced. As such,
parliamentarians can support each other in extending dialogue between
countries and in deepening parliamentary oversight of the executive
branches in all of our countries.

In this respect, it is worthwhile referring to one of the last
conclusions of the final declaration, which states that a continuous
reinforcement of the Asia-Europe partnership is mutually beneficial
and guarantees the continuity in the ASEP process. Therefore ASEP
should develop further, to strengthen the leadership and to establish
follow-up mechanisms of the meetings, as well as to monitor how the
governments have worked with issues ASEP has given a priority to.

As representative of the 6th ASEP Presidency, I am convinced that the
Laos presidency over the 7th ASEP will be an even greater success than
the presidencies before in deepening this interparliamentary dialogue
and in putting ASEP in the center of EU¬-Asian cooperation.



I thank you for the invitation and for the generous hospitality.

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