At a reception in Hanoi on February 23, Mr Hung said the Vietnam National Assembly is ready to partner with the AIPA Secretariat in preparation for the AIPA meeting to be held at the end of 2012.

Vietnam has high hopes that the AIPA Secretariat will ceaselessly perfect and improve its operations to meet heightened demand in the context where both AIPA and ASEAN are making efforts to build the ASEAN Community by 2015, Mr. Hung.

The top legislator wished that the AIPA Secretary General would continue to act as a conduit between the Vietnam NA and AIPA members and the AIPA observers as well.

For his part, Antonio V. Cuenco suggested the Vietnam NA actively engage discussing measures to prevent wild animal trafficking at the upcoming AIPA meeting.

He expressed his belief that with Vietnam’s support, ASEAN will cooperate more effectively in establishing agencies that oversee and prevent wild animal trafficking.

On the same day, NA Chairman Hung held talks with Freeland Foundation’s Executive Director Steve Galster, during which Hung applauded the foundation’s proposals for drafting a joint ASEAN regulation on the prevention of wild animal trafficking.

Vietnam has put forward concrete and strict regulations and joined related international conventions, Mr Hung said.