- Excellencies the Leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam;

- Mr. Duarte Pacheco – the President of the IPU;

- Mr. Martin Chungong – the Secretary General of the IPU;

- Mr. Dan Carden, the President of the IPU Young Parliamentarians Forum;

- Distinguished guests;

- Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am glad to be on behalf of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the people of Vietnam to extend the warm welcomes to Mr. President and Mr. Secretary General of the IPU; the President of the IPU Young Parliamentarians Forum; the delegations of the Member Parliaments and the Observers; the invited guests to 9^th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in Hanoi City – the city for peace, the thousand-year culture capital of Vietnam.

Vietnam proposed the initiative and is proud to be selected by the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) as the host country to organize 9^th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians. Followed the success of the 132-IPU Assembly in 2015, 26^th APPF in 2018 and 41^st AIPA Assembly in 2020, the hosting of this Conference of the National Assembly of Vietnam will continue to affirm the active, proactive and responsible participation of Vietnam in the IPU; at the same time demonstrate the special attention and priority paid by Vietnam to the youth and the global common issues of the youth.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Over the past 37 years of DOIMOI (reform) since 1986, Vietnam has recorded important, comprehensive and historic achievements. Vietnam has made a miracle in building the new rural areas model and reducing poverty sustainably; as a bright spot in the Millennium Goals and the UN Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals by 2030; committed to reach net-zero emissions target by 2050. The economic growth reaches about 6% a year. The GDP scale of 2022 at current price ranks 38^th in the world; and in the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) according to the IMF, it ranks 10^th in the Asia and 24^th in the world. The total import and export turnovers of 2022 was around USD735 billion; among the top 20 countries of the largest foreign trade turnovers in the globe. Vietnam has been successful in the FDI absorption and as result there has been 37,000 FDI projects from 143 countries and territories, totaling up to USD 450 billion of the registered fund.

Vietnam identifies the two target of 100-year development of the country, striving to 2030 (100^th celebration of the Communist Party of Vietnam): Vietnam is a developing country with modern industry and high middle income country; and in 2045 will be 100^th birthday of the former Democratic Republic of Vietnam and today the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: to become a developed nation with high income.

We are entering into the third decade of 21^st century facing unexpected challenges. For the time, the world experienced the Covid-19 pandemic at unprecedented scale and at far estimated losses. It can be said that the political, economic and international security environment has never faced with such challenges and difficulties. The prolonging and complicated consequences of the pandemic intertwined with the tenses and the geographic political conflicts; the competitions, fragmentations, upheavals, uncertainties of the food, security, finance and monetary markets; the declines of investments; the  disruptions of the supply chains and so on that have swiped away the outcomes of poverty reduction and developments of decades and posed enormous and multifaceted difficulties in short term and long term to several countries in the world; the implementation of the UN Agenda on SDGs has been slowdown and hardly to fulfill the goals. Furthermore, the non-traditional security, particularly the negative consequences of climate change are directly impacting people, security and development of every country.

However, we have rights to be optimistic and hopeful of the future. Peace, cooperation and development remain the mainstreams and huge tendencies. The world has overcome the Covid-19 pandemic; and we have stayed out of the disruptions by the pandemic and made us stronger and more unified. The trend of digital transformation, green transition and innovations are spreading. While the globalization process faces difficulties, the new economic cooperation models at regional and global levels are quickly furthered. The world without wars, the mankind out of poverty will be the common goals of the global cooperation efforts.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The theme of the Conference: "The role of the youth in advancing the SDGs through digital transformation and innovations" and discussion sessions such as (i) Digital Transformation, (ii) Innovations and Start-ups; and (iii) Enhancing the Respects to Culture Diversity for Sustainable Development, I would like to ask the participants to discuss and exchange on the issues:

Firstly, what and how we should do to comply and ensure the international laws, the UN Charter as the fundamental conditions to keep and nurture peace, cooperation and sustainable development.

Secondly, the role of the advanced nations, the international organizations, the business community and the youth in dealing with the global issues such as sustainable and safe digital transformation; equitable energy transition, adaptation to the climate change and widespread the entrepreneurship and innovations.

Thirdly, to put the citizens and businesses at the forefront of decisive policies in the development process; as the goals; the drive and basic resource of resources; what we should continue to do and how to do in the planning and executing the laws and actions for the happiness of citizens.

Fourthly,  to perform the cultural and human values in the sustainable development; to enhance the respects of culture diversity in the context of 4^th Industrial Revolution; to tighten the cooperation in the reform of economic model governance; to increase productivity; to create new drives for the economic growth; and to support the state agencies to work in a more transparent and effective manner in the digitalization in order to narrow the development gaps and secure the national sovereignty and the privacies of people in the cyberspace.

Fifthly, the IPU needs to set up a network of the young parliamentarians in the globe for innovations so as to exchange and learn experience from each other.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The President Ho Chi Minh – the most talented Leader of our country, the world cultural well-known person mentioned the Spring season – the most beautiful season of the year to celebrate the youth: "A new year begins with the Spring. A life starts with the youth. The youth is the Spring of society". The President also affirmed: "The youth will be the master of the country. The country will be prosperous or not; strong or weak, depends on the youth, mostly". The youth, the young people is the key force to take the mission and historic responsibility in the integration and development of every country and the prosperity of the common world. I believe that every parliamentarian from the Member Parliaments will perform their knowledge, energy, creativity, responsibility and enthusiasm to make the Conference success.

With that sense of the confidence, I would like to declare 9^th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians open.

I wish all of you good health and happiness./.