ASEAN parliamentarians Thursday called for their governments to include the establishment of the ASEAN Parliament in the ASEAN Chapter, which is expected to merge at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore later this year.
They made the call as the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly ( AIPA), formally known as the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO), closed its 28th General Assembly here which was chaired by Ramli Ngah Talib, speaker of Malaysia's House of Representative.
"At this Assembly, we have reiterated that parliamentarians play an important role in the efforts at achieving the goals and objectives of ASEAN," Ramli said in his closing address.
"We have also repeatedly expressed the hope that we could one day be in a position to establish the ASEAN Parliament," he said.
"On this, we concur that we would all go back and strongly urge our respective governments to agree to the inclusion of the future establishment of an ASEAN Parliament as a long-term objective in the Statute of AIPA and the ASEAN Chapter," he said.
The 28th AIPA General Assembly officially opened here on Monday, which saw the presence of parliament representatives from 10 ASEAN countries and observers, including China, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the European Parliament and New Zealand.
The assembly adopted a joint communique and some resolutions and reports to stress the commitment of ASEAN parliamentarians to support the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015.
It also approved the installation of a Permanent Secretary General for AIPA and the appointment of Yusoff Zain to the post for a term of three years starting from May 1 this year.
Ramli said that the approval of the installation of the post was one of the major achievements of the AIPA general assembly would facilitate the implementation of the related resolutions adopted by AIPA.
The assembly also passed a resolution to increase annual contribution by member countries to the assembly, according to the joint communique issued here.
Meanwhile, the assembly urged the High Level Task Force drafting the ASEAN Charter to make an unequivocal, clear and specific mention that AIPA would play a more effective role in legislative, consultation and formulation as part of an ASEAN community.
The assembly also agreed on the need to safeguard security and stability in the Straits of Malacca and ASEAN region through increased joint maritime initiatives as well as the need to undertake studies for the creation of an Asian Monetary Fund.
An extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of AIPO here changed the name of the body to the AIPA on April 18 this year. The ASEAN legislative grouping also appointed Yusoff Zain as its first Permanent Secretary General effective from May 1 this year.
AIPA currently embraces eight members -- Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines. Brunei and Myanmar are its special observers.
Source: Xinhua
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