Inside ASEAN Column

The 27^th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF)

Siem Reap, the Kingdom of Cambodia

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          The 27^th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum was held during 14 - 17 January 2019 at Sokha Siem Reap Resort and Convention Center, Siem Reap, the Kingdom of Cambodia under the topic “Strengthening Parliamentary Partnership for Peace, Security and Sustainable Development.” For the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) delegation, Gen. Surapong Suwana-Adth, 2^nd Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs was a head of the delegation including Gen. Suravach Butrwong, Mrs. Suwannee Sirivejchapun and Prof. Nisada Wedchayanon, NLA members as the NLA representatives to attend the meeting. Representatives from twenty member countries and one observing country, Brunei Darussalam, attended the meeting.

        In addition, the President of the National Legislative Assembly appointed H.E. Mr. Panyarak Poolthup, Ambassador of Thailand to Cambodia to be the Advisor of the NLA delegation.

Meeting of APPF Women Parliamentarians

        The meeting of APPF Women Parliamentarians started on 14 January 2019. The meeting consisted of 3 topics: 1) Strengthening Asia-Pacific Region Partnership for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls for Peace and Sustainable Development, 2) Ensuring Equality for all Women and Men Access to Education, Technical Training and Information Technology for Sustainable Peace and Achieving SDGs and 3) Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Decision-Making at All Levels. The meeting focused on the importance of women’s roles in economic development and prosperity in Asia-Pacific region and determined to strengthen gender equality in the region. For the NLA delegation, Mrs. Suwannee Sirivejchapun, Member of the NLA delivered a speech on the topic 1) Strengthening Asia-Pacific Region Partnership for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls for Peace and Sustainable Development. The conclusion of the speech is that although women have played more active roles at present, they are still far from the equality with men. Moreover, the number of female labour is still low compared to male labour even though female labour play an important part in the economic change. At the end of speech, three proposals are given to the meeting. 1) APPF parliamentarians must promote the application of multi-dimensional policy research for creating gender equality in labour. 2) The courageous action must be implemented for improving their quality of life for women. 3) The promotion of women’s roles as a change agent in women’s aspect for peace and security must rely on the cooperation from parliaments, parliamentary partnership, reliability at all levels, especially leaders in the region and leaders among parliamentarians for creating the world where all women are equally treated with respect, honour, affection and care.

          First Plenary Session: Political and Security Matters was held on Tuesday, 15 January 2019. The meeting discussed into 3 topics: 1) Building Trust for Peace, Security and Sustainable Development in the Region, 2) Combating Terrorism and Transnational Crime in the Region, and 3) Strengthening Parliamentary Cooperation in Promoting the Responsible Use of Cyberspace for Social Progress. For the NLA delegation, Gen. Surapong Suwana-Adth, Head of the delegation delivered a speech on the topic 1) Building Trust for Peace, Security and Sustainable Development in the Region. He addressed that the importance of Asia-Pacific Region in peace and security plays a crucial role in poverty eradication in accordance with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thailand has also implemented this practice and applied the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej to develop a country for a long time. As the President of ASEAN, Thailand determines to promote the security in the region through meetings in various frameworks including enactment of international laws on peace and security both inside and outside of the region. He also delivered a speech on the topic
3) Strengthening Parliamentary Cooperation in Promoting the Responsible Use of Cyberspace that Thailand has continually developed the digital connectivity for supporting the economic growth. Thai government pushes inexpensive high speed internet to every household, supports innovative development for driving the country and cyberspace security. NLA members have pushed laws on security, personal information and amended many laws.

          Second Plenary Session: Economic and Trade Matters – In this session, there were 3 topics: 1) Enhancing Cooperation Among Member States to Build Strong Institution for Promoting Trade and Inclusive Growth, 2) Promoting Financial Access and Vocational Training for Small-Medium Enterprises for Employment and Peace, and 3) Enhancing Connective in the Asia-Pacific Through e-Commerce. For the presentation of NLA delegation, Gen. Suravach Butrwong, Member of the NLA delivered a speech on the topic 3) Enhancing Connective in the Asia-Pacific Through e-Commerce. The main contents were relevant to the endeavor in supporting economic connectivity in all dimensions for conforming to WTO’s international trade framework and responding to Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area supporting the competitiveness in the region, especially in a service sector according to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2016-2020. Thailand as a member country holds the operational principle according to APEC Connectivity Master Plan 2016-2029 and AEC Blueprint 2029. Thai government has launched “Thailand 4.0” policy which is a new pattern of driving the economy. This policy intends to support research and drive innovations and digital economy. Furthermore, Electronic Transactions Development Agency (Public Organization) was set up under supervision of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society for promoting and creating standards and infrastructure of country’s electronic transactions. The NLA as the Legislature having the duty in the enactment of related laws has realized the importance of this matter, therefore the NLA approved important laws such as Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses, B.E. 2561 (2018).

          Third Plenary Session: Regional Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region –
The meeting discussed into 3 topics: 1) Enhancing Parliamentary Roles in Response to Climate Change, 2) Promoting Cooperation on Disaster Risk Reduction, and 3) Enhancing Parliamentary Cooperation in Promoting Culture Diversity and Tourism in Asia-Pacific. Two members of the NLA delegation delivering a speech at the meeting were 1) Mrs. Suwannee Sirivejchapun delivering a speech on the topic “Enhancing Parliamentary Roles in Response to Climate Change” and 2) Prof. Nisada Wedchayanon delivering a speech on the topic “Enhancing Parliamentary Cooperation in Promoting Culture Diversity and Tourism in Asia-Pacific”

          Fourth Plenary Session: APPF’s Activities contained the report of meeting results in various sessions which shall be approved by the meeting. Then, Joint Communiqué was signed by Heads of the delegation from various countries. Finally, APPF flag was handed over from the Kingdom of Cambodia to the Common Wealth of Australia before closing the meeting.

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