NA President departs for AIPA meeting

(KPL) President of the National Assembly, Mr Thongsing Thammavong and his entourage left for Singapore on 19 August to participate in the 29th General Assembly of the ASEAN International Parliament (AIPA) to be held in this city state from 19 to 24 August.
Just before he left the country, Mr. Thongsing Thammavong, said that the main objectives of AIPA are to strengthen ASEAN as a regional organization and to achieve its vision of the establishment of the ASEAN Security Community. The other aims, he said are to work on to develop the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Last but not least, he told the reporters is that the member countries would find ways and means to further deepen the existing cooperation among AIPA members and he added that such a step is relevant to keeping pace with the rapid developments in ASEAN.
The topics that will be discussed are the continuation of the building of ASEAN as a regional bloc, to work on to reduce poverty in the ASEAN countries and to find ways to reduce the economic gap of ASEAN countries. Issues that will also be discussed are economic integration, the high price of energy, protecting the rights of women and children and promoting the work of AIPA.
A farewell ceremony was held at the National Assembly in Vientiane on 18 August.