ASIAN PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY TO MEET IN JAKARTA

Jakarta, Aug 10 (ANTARA) - The Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) will hold its two-day meeting here from Tuesday to Wednesday to discuss various issues.

Chairman of Inter-parliament Cooperation Board at the House of Representatives (DPR) Abdillah Thoha said here on Monday that the meeting, to be attended by 56 delegates from Asia, would discuss actual issues in various fields.

In economic field, Abdillah said APA would discuss Asian countries cooperation in global crisis management.

"Other issue to be discussed will relate to joint action in combating terrorism and international crime," said the senior politician from National Mandate Party (PAN).

Abdillah said Asian countries including Indonesia had a big role in their effort to overcome the global crisis.

"The Asian countries have a great potential to overcome the global crisis slowly," Abdillah said.

The Asian Parliamentary Assembly was born in 2006 at the seventh session of the Association of Asian Parliamentary for Peace (AAPP).

In other words, the APA is the continuation of an organization which was established in 1999, and as of 2007 it comprised 40 member parliaments and 18 observers.

Each member parliament has a specific number of seats in the Assembly based on the size of their population.

The AAPP grew out of the collective desire and concerted effort of legislators and members of civil society in Asia to promote peace in general and in the Asian region in particular.

It was established in September 1999 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to promote unity toward the single purpose of peace and a concrete framework for regional cooperation to strengthen human rights protection and democracy.

The AAPP was to cultivate strategies for the realization of peace and the right to development as well as social, cultural, and environmental rights of the people in Asia.

Abdillah said the meeting in Jakarta would be a good momentum to strengthen Asian solidarity in combating terrorism.

"Indonesia in the meeting will urge the APA member countries to cooperate in preventing the act of terrorism," Abdillah said.