Events

MINSK, 22 September (BelTA) – The Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN IPA) shows interest in all-round cooperation with Belarus. The matter was discussed at the 35^th General Assembly of ASEAN IPA in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, on 15-19 September, BelTA learned from Deputy Chairman of the permanent commission on international affairs of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Vitaly Busko.

In his words, the Belarusian parliament achieved the observer status in ASEAN IPA in 2011. Great attention at the Assembly was turned to the dialogue with observer states at all levels and areas. “All ten participating states of the Association showed big interest in intensifying both the political and economic cooperation with Belarus. Apart from trade, military-industrial, educational relations, the countries expressed readiness for the joint work in the production of equipment and agricultural cooperation,” Vitaly Busko stressed. Cambodia, for instance, has already launched the assembling of MTZ tractors. Vietnam assembles MAZ equipment. Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and other countries are also interested in such cooperation.

ASEAN IPA is gearing up to sign the agreement to establish an economic commonwealth in 2015. The commonwealth will unite ten countries with the total population of 630 million people. “The ASEAN comprises countries with various population and economic development level. This economic commonwealth has been supported by all member states that are ready to share experience, technologies and workforce. However, they still have a lot to do to harmonize legislation, and the experience of Belarus that gained this experience during the development of the Union State with Russia is of great importance to them,” Vitaly Busko noted.

The work of ASEAN IPA is aimed first of all at the strengthening of inter-parliamentary cooperation. Minsk has been recently visited by heads of the parliaments of Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia. Speaker of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Vladimir Andreichenko paid visits to Vietnam and Cambodia not long ago. Visits to Belarus for parliamentary delegations of Brunei and Myanmar are under consideration.