Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doanhas urged parliamentarians from ASEAN countries to cooperate on acloser basis to promote gender issues as part of national programmes.

On addressing the opening session of a conference on the role of femaleparliamentarians in the legislative process in Hanoi on Nov. 30, ViceState President Doan said that she was pleased with the progress madeby joint initiatives between ASEAN members, to raise the profile ofwomen by approving a series of regional bills recognising the importantrole women play.

The Party and State of Vietnam have always paid attention to promotinggender equality and Vietnamese women have benefited in political,socio-economic, cultural and family life, she stressed.

At the conference, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong ThiPhong noted that enhancing the role of female parliamentarians inlawmaking is an important goal for every country and has been on theagenda of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) for many years.

Vietnam has made many important achievements in raising women’sinput in lawmaking, state management and socio-economic development.This is highlighted by the level of women in the National Assembly aswell as in elected organs, she added.

She said that she hoped female parliamentarians from AIPA members willcompare notes and share their experiences on their role in lawmaking inorder to find solutions to issues that women face, discuss futurecooperation and contribute to improving their role and position inpolitical and socio-economic activities.

The agenda of the two-day conference also includes the establishment ofa regional cooperation mechanism for female parliamentarians toexchange information and experiences in lawmaking and genderintegration.

The conference drew female parliamentarians from Cambodia, Laos,Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, the AIPA’s actinggeneral-secretary I Gusti Ayu Darsini, representatives from the UNDevelopment Programme, international organisations and severalembassies in Hanoi./.