The twice-a-decade global parliamentary summit, officially known as the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, has been proven as an important platform for promoting global peace and development since its launch in 2000.
Parliament speakers from around the world are to gather at the U.N. headquarters for the 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament scheduled for Aug. 31-Sept. 2, for discussions about issues of how to tackle global challenges.
Since the first edition of the meeting in 2000, which was held alongside the epoch-marking U.N. Millennium Summit, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) -- the organizer of the mechanism -- has been trying to make the convention its flagship event for promoting peace and development.
As pointed out by many, the IPU, the world's biggest, longest-standing and most influential international organization of parliaments, is uniquely positioned to coordinate global responses to various challenges such as armed conflicts, terrorism, climate change and gender equality among others.
In the past few years, facilitating the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) has been at the heart of IPU-U.N. cooperation and remarkable progress has been made in this regard.
At the scheduled parliamentary summit later this week, the participants will focus much of their discussion on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which will replace the MDG as it expires by the end of 2015.
While contributing their wisdom to post-MDG development strategies, representatives to the meeting should be reminded they must listen to the voices of developing nations and the least developed nations so as to push global growth toward more balanced, inclusive and equitable development.
As a member of the IPU, China has attached great importance to inter-parliamentary exchanges with other countries and within multilateral frameworks.
Being the world's largest developing nation, China sees development as its first priority and adheres to the path of peaceful development. It has also made gender equality, environmental protection and resources preservation its basic national policies. And China's contribution to world peace and development is also widely recognized.
With many members willing to share experiences in various fields, the IPU actually "brings together the best practices from around the world," as IPU President Saber Chowdhury said. And there is good reason that this bonanza will substantially boost the development of the human society as a whole.
