Digital technology key to solving challenges: young parliamentarians

 Delegates to the just-ended ninth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, hosted by the Vietnamese National Assembly, showed their concern over digital transformation – a main content demonstrated in the conference’s theme “The Role of Young People in Promoting the Realisation of Sustainable Development Goals via Digital Transformation and Innovations”.

President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Board President of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians Dan Carden said that the world is facing many challenges related to technology such as fake news, and social and political divisions, which pose a need to raise general awareness to use technology more effectively to solve challenges in society, thus helping legislative bodies make right decisions for development.

According to him, as Vietnam will develop rapidly in the coming years, digital technology will be key to solving challenges such as climate change, to which it is one of the most vulnerable countries. 

He expressed his hope that through the conference, young politicians can make important decisions about how the world copes with future challenges.

Emphasising the role of perfecting institutions in the process of promoting development in general and digital transformation in particular, Nguyen Thi Hue, a deputy from Bac Kan province, said that when institutions cannot meet development needs, the implementation will be very difficult.

It is clear that whichever country quickly approaches this issue and puts in place adequate institutions to encourage the promotion of digital transformation, that country will have more opportunities for success, Hue shared.

Many delegates agreed that digital transformation is more of a policy and institutional revolution than a technological revolution, in which young generations play a key role.
 

Delegates discuss on the sidelines of ninth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians (Photo: VNA)

Regarding the third session on promoting respect for cultural diversity in support of sustainable development, Nguyen Thi Ha, a Vietnamese delegate, said culture is an important factor for countries to realise sustainable development goals, adding that it is also identified as one of the elements that decide the strength and position of each country in the international arena.

She also stressed that at present, innovation and entrepreneurship have strategic significance for every country because they promote growth and bring added value to socio-economic activities.

Innovation and entrepreneurship allow developing countries to move faster in implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs), she added.

Many agreed that young Vietnamese parliamentarians should learn from experiences of foreign parliaments in legislating, supervising, and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, and also make proposals on policies and solutions to minimise risks in startups./.