Opening of the 36th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi: Empowering women and promoting youth cooperation

The 36th ASEAN Summit officially opened in Hanoi today. This is the first official summit in Vietnam's ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020. This conference took place online with the participation of leaders of 10 ASEAN countries at each country's bridgehead. According to tradition, the first ASEAN Summit of the year is an internal conference of ASEAN leaders. The opening session was broadcast live on radio and television.

After the opening ceremony, there will be the 36th ASEAN Summit, a special session of ASEAN leaders on women's empowerment in the digital age, a meeting between ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly; a dialogue between ASEAN leaders and ASEAN youth, a dialogue between ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and a press conference by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman of the 36th ASEAN Summit.

On this occasion, the leaders will review all ASEAN work from the previous Summit (the 35th Summit in November 2019) to present, giving directions for community building in the coming time, especially in the last 6 months of the year.

At the same time, the leaders also gave opinions on ASEAN's relations with external partners (ASEAN's foreign relations); and discussed international and regional issues of mutual concern.

In particular, in the current situation, one focus that leaders cannot help but focus on is continuing to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and ASEAN's recovery direction.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, President of AIPA 41, spoke on behalf of Vietnam at the Special Session on Women's Empowerment in the Digital Age and together with National Assembly Permanent Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation to AIPA, attended the dialogue between ASEAN Leaders and AIPA.

As planned, the 36th ASEAN Summit will be held in 1 day (June 26).

Special Session on Women's Empowerment

For the first time in history,ASEAN Leaders held a Special Session on Women's Empowerment in the Digital Age at the 36th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi on June 26.

This is an initiative proposed by Vietnam to affirm the commitment of ASEAN Leaders in promoting gender equality, enhancing the role of women in the process of building the Community and socio-economic development in ASEAN. This activity also aims to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on promoting women's rights.

It can be said that women's empowerment has been given special attention by leaders of ASEAN countries and the whole of Vietnam. Nearly two years ago, in October 2018, speaking at the third ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Women (AMMW-3) also held in Hanoi, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized: "We cannot become a united, self-reliant, creative and sustainably developed ASEAN Community without the important participation of women and girls."

In fact, since its establishment in 1967, ASEAN has made great efforts to empower women. This is reflected in very positive numbers: The proportion of women in parliament in many ASEAN countries has reached over 20%. The number of women who own businesses has increased significantly recently, many women are chairmen of boards of directors or CEOs of large corporations and businesses.

However, in some areas, women's empowerment is still not properly recognized, and women even suffer from income inequality compared to men when doing the same job, with an average difference of up to 25% in some countries.

Women in ASEAN countries have also begun to realize the importance of improving their role and position. The ASEAN Women for Peace (AWPR) was established on December 13, 2018 in the Philippines. Members of the group include female representatives of ASEAN countries, including diplomats, officials, former government officials, negotiators, and peace and reconciliation researchers.

In the context of the rapidly evolving Fourth Industrial Revolution, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in ASEAN will create many opportunities to continue joint efforts, contributing to the promotion and protection of human rights in the region.

Youth cooperation - a driving force for ASEAN community cohesion

As a resource that plays an important role in most areas of each country and region - a force connecting the present with the future, promoting the role of youth in the ASEAN region not only contributes to enhancing sustainability in development strategies but also strengthens solidarity and friendship between countries in the region and internationally.

Some typical activities include: ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth (AMMY) held every two years in ASEAN countries; ASEAN Departmental Officials Meeting on Youth (SOMY) held annually to discuss and agree on specific initiatives and cooperation activities in ASEAN; ASEAN Youth Day (ANDM) - an activity often integrated into major events such as the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth and chaired by the current ASEAN Youth Chair; held to honor youth or youth organizations with outstanding achievements in a number of fields; ASEAN Senior Leaders Meeting.

In 2020, when Vietnam assumes the rotating ASEAN Chairmanship, according to the program, the National Committee on Vietnamese Youth and the Central Youth Union will organize many ASEAN and ASEAN+ youth cooperation activities in a number of localities across the country, such as: ASEAN youth meeting with ASEAN Senior Leaders (on the sidelines of the 36th ASEAN Summit), the Expanded ASEAN Youth Volunteer Forum and the Expanded ASEAN Youth Volunteer Awards in Quang Binh, and the ASEAN Young Entrepreneurs Forum in Quang Ninh.

As a member contributing to the socio-cultural pillar of the ASEAN Community in Vietnam, the National Committee on Youth of Vietnam and the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union have actively contributed to the contents of the pillar: participating in the Project on building and implementing the Plan to implement the goals of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community by 2025, building the Action Plan of the Central Committee of the Youth Union - National Committee on Youth of Vietnam to implement the Project; sending leadership representatives to join the ASEAN National Committee 2020, contributing to the preparation of Vietnam's ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020. In addition, Vietnam also implemented many support and cooperation programs within the bilateral framework with a number of ASEAN member countries.

The above activities show the special interest of the leaders of ASEAN countries and the Chair of Vietnam in youth work, especially promoting youth cooperation in ASEAN to create an important bridge and driving force to connect ASEAN in the future. Therefore, the above issue, along with women's empowerment, has become two of the many topics of great interest at the 36th ASEAN Summit./.