The 9^th Conference is participated by 300 young parliamentarians and delegates from more than 70 IPU members; the representatives of the international organizations; the Ambassadors, the representatives of the foreign diplomacy agencies and the international organizations in Vietnam; 124 members of the Vietnam National Assembly Young Parliamentarians Group; 20 Vietnamese young prominent figures; and 20 young delegates from the provincial people's councils of Vietnam.

On the morning of September 15^th 2023, at the National Convention Center, Hanoi Capital, 9^th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians opened. Addressing at the opening session, the IPU Secretary General Mr. Martin Chungong said the Conference took place coincidentally on the International Democracy Day (September 15^th) and he asked all the participants to say "Congratulations the Democracy Day" to your next seaters.

He expressed his pleasure to be here in a special event and thanked the National Assembly of Vietnam for hosting 9^th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians; extended his sincere thanks to Mr. President of the National Assembly of Vietnam and the leaders of the National Assembly of Vietnam for their directions to the careful organization of the Conference.

Mr. Martin Chungong highly appreciated Vietnam for making the remarkable progress in areas including the digital transformation and the strong commitments in the integration of digital transformation and empowerments to the youth; at the same time, he also appreciated the Organizing Committee for their inclusive approach in getting the involvements of the youth and young parliamentarians in the preparations for this Conference.

Mr. Martin Chungong said that in April 1^st, 2015 the IPU Assembly, which was held in Vietnam, approved the Hanoi Declaration on "The SDGs: Transform Words into Actions" - was an important milestone and demonstrated our shared commitments in dealing with the urgent issues of the world. The approved Hanoi Declaration helped to transform the target into reality.

However, the commitments alone cannot deliver the change; our responsibility is to translate words into actions. Mr. Martin Chungong appreciated Vietnam for the integration of their commitments into realistic actions. The law-making body issued laws and carried out appropriate reforms relevant to the SDGs to deal with issues such as the poverty reduction, gender equity, environmental protection and climate change.

At the world scale, the IPU facilitated the cross-border cooperation for all relevant parties to share experiences and build new partnerships; provided the platforms and technical tools to support the parliaments to realize the set forth targets. Recently, the IPU has officially placed the confidence in the power of technology in advancing the SDGs, particularly the approval of the new strategy for the 2022-2026 period. The members of the IPU focus on innovations and digital transformation as the center in implementing the digital transformation strategy.

In order to achieve the target, the IPU established the Innovation Center in 2018 to interconnect the parliaments to support the collaborations and knowledge sharing. The IPU holds events for the future such as the Summit of the Future Committees that will be co-organized by the parliament of Uruguay as late of September 2023. Such initiatives and beyond, the IPU strengthens the approaches and/or the way that the parliaments could do with aims to harness the advantages of the digital era.

To this end, it is necessary to reform procedures to further the online participations of the parliamentarians to carry out their tasks in a more efficient way; create new platforms for the parliamentarians and parliament to connect with voters who will contribute to the parliaments. The establishment or strengthening the parliamentary bodies with the vision toward the future such as the Future Committee to predict and deal with long-term trends or the shocks in the future in which encourage the views of the youth in such committees. At the same time, to consider the cyberspace could possibly be the root of gender violence. That's why, the IPU calls for member parliaments to launch policies and procedures to stop and solve the technology-enabled harassments and violence for parliamentarians.

Mr. Martin Chungong stressed that the young parliamentarians play an important role as a motivation to advance the progress and development; contribute their views, the innovative solutions to the processes of the parliaments; share realities and raise their voices on the concerned issues, especially the better connections with the youth.

This Conference is also a reminder of the discrimination to a part of young women. The contribution made by the young women is not only essential to the parliaments but in the global mission in order to advance the SDGs through digital transformation and digital technology innovation. As young parliamentarians, those who need to take the leadership in furthering gender equity and the IPU pledges this goal.

Concluding his speech, the IPU Secretary General stressed that as young people who play the central role in the process with the passion, enthusiasm and contributions of the young parliamentarians in advancing the SDGs through digital transformation and innovations will be the guiding star for the all; and the IPU is proud of accompanying and ready to support young parliamentarians and the youth in this mission./.