Young parliamentarians and future responsibilities

As the largest multilateral diplomatic event hosted by Vietnam this year, the 9th Global Meeting of Young Parliamentarians took place in Hanoi from September 14 to 17 with the theme "The role of youth in promoting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through digital transformation and innovation".

Speaking at the opening of the 9th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians on the morning of September 15, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that countless difficult events in the third decade of the 21st century, including the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts, have erased many achievements in poverty reduction and development over the past decades and are causing many great, multi-dimensional difficulties, both short-term and long-term, for many countries around the world. The implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda is also slowing down, making it difficult to achieve its goals. In addition, non-traditional security issues, especially the negative impacts of climate change, are directly affecting the people, security and development of every country.

In mid-July, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged for the first time that the world was at risk of missing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the launch of the “Sustainable Development Goals 2023: Special Edition”. That risk is real, because of the 140 assessable goals, 50% of the goals are off track and more than 30% of the goals have made no progress, or even regressed below the 2015 baseline.

Also in the Covid-19 storm sweeping the globe, technology has proven and been recognized as an important “force” to help countries not only cope during the pandemic, but more importantly, recover and develop sustainably in the future. This also means that it is completely possible to promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through digital transformation and innovation.

In this process, the youth play an extremely important role. Because, as President Vo Van Thuong emphasized in his welcoming speech at the conference, the youth have great advantages in taking advantage of opportunities, especially those brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution; they are the force holding the key to opening new doors, new ways of thinking and working to effectively handle common global challenges in the present and the future.

It can be said that young people are part of the solution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of young Vietnamese people invented the “anti-epidemic helmet” - which can cover the entire head with a PAPR mask to provide clean air; or a young Indonesian player created Alodokter (a telemedicine application) to help many people access medical advice when they are afraid to go to the hospital.

However, young people cannot succeed if they act alone; they need support from Parliament and the Government. In particular, the role of Parliament and young parliamentarians is to perfect the legal framework and national institutions for digital transformation and innovation; at the same time, create a policy agenda and promote legal initiatives for young people to effectively implement the Sustainable Development Goals through digital transformation and innovation.

In the report mentioned above, the United Nations is concerned that stalling the global effort to achieve the SDGs could cause greater political instability, economic disruption and irreparable environmental damage. The world’s poorest and most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of these unprecedented global challenges. In this context, the 9th Global Meeting of Young Parliamentarians is entrusting a great expectation - that there will be concrete actions to promote young people - with the "tools" of digital transformation and innovation - to participate more effectively in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, so that no one in this world is truly left behind.

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