Regional integration, fighting terrorism to top Asian parties meet

The standing committee of Asia’s ruling and opposition political parties, which is headed by Speaker Jose de Venecia, has approved moves to fight poverty, international terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as a plan to establish a single Asian community.

"I am extremely grateful that the standing committee has approved our major proposals for discussion in next year’s conference," said De Venecia after a meeting to draw up the agenda of the fourth International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) that Seoul will host in September next year.

De Venecia is in Seoul, where the panel "endorsed the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, settlement of the political crisis in Myanmar, the separate peace process between Sri Lanka and Tamil Tigers, the Philippine government and Muslim and communist insurgents, Palestinians and Israelites, and Nepal’s warring parties."

Twelve members who attended the conference have "encouraged support at the national level for debt reduction, measures to enhance national development and reduce poverty, and the initiative to establish within five years the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) that could hasten political integration in Asia."

De Venecia said the agenda "represented the collective vision of Asia’s political parties in their drive toward regional security and political stability, poverty eradication and national development, meaningful party-to-party contacts to strengthen the party system, and increased coordination and cooperation between Asia’s various groupings and movements."

He and the standing committee released a five-page summary of the meeting, hosted by South Korea’s ruling Uri party, which will organize the fourth ICAPP assembly.

Among De Venecia’s major initiatives that won approval were those pushing for an Asian Anti-Poverty Fund to micro-finance entrepreneurial efforts among Asia’s poor, the Inter-Faith Dialogue already underway in the UN, and the establishment of a standby Global Anti-Disaster Fund to rapidly respond to disasters following the December 2004 tsunami. — Delon Porcalla