Regarding the cooperation focus in the near future, Hue suggested effectively carrying out bilateral cooperation mechanisms and better tapping bilateral cooperation potential, towards achieving two-way trade of 500 million USD.

He expected that Brunei would assist Vietnamese firms in achieving Halal food qualifications, thus making it easier for them to export products to the country.

The Vietnamese NA supports and stays ready to work with the Legislative Council of Brunei for the development of a harmonious and self-resilient ASEAN Community, he affirmed.

The Vietnamese leader emphasised that parliaments should continue making active and responsible contributions to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA)’s activities, including ensuring peace and stability; upholding common principles, values and standards; strengthening solidarity and central role of ASEAN; abiding by law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), towards building a practical and effective Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea.

According to the Chairman, concerned parties need to build a regional economy with sustainable growth, place the people in the centre in policy making while continuing to uphold ASEAN’s centrality, consolidate the rules-based regional architecture, and highlight international law, with a focus on multilateral cooperation.

Taib, for his part, hailed Vietnam as one of the countries that Brunei wants to import more farm produce to meet its people's demand.

He lauded the Vietnamese NA for promoting important regional issues in its capacity as AIPA Chair, and wished the two nations would work closely together within ASEAN and AIPA frameworks.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading complicatedly across the world, posing risks to economic recovery due to the insufficient supply of vaccines and vaccine production technology, Hue highlighted the importance of fair sharing and access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide as well as the digitalisation and application of information technology in the fight against the pandemic, which he said, requires close collaboration between legislative and executive agencies. This content needs to be tabled for discussion at the 42nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly scheduled for August, he said.

Taib affirmed that Brunei supports the fair distribution of vaccines among nations, and emphasised the need of cooperation to ensure fair supply of vaccines for every country and person.

On the occasion, the top Vietnamese legislator thanked Brunei for assisting Vietnamese citizens living and working in the country in getting vaccinations against COVID-19./. VNA