(Photo:quochoi.vn)

Bao Tram: Thank you, Emer Currie, for granting VOV24/7 this interview. As a young parliamentarian, what do you think of the role of respect for cultural diversity in modern society, particularly in the digital era?

Emer Currie: Yes, they have an essential role to play. In Ireland, for example, we have a Global Ireland - our Creative Ireland initiative - that is about increasing our presence from a diplomatic perspective while also bringing our culture to the world and supporting our diaspora and the many people that have emigrated from Ireland to other parts of the world. We have a very proud culture and I think we are accepting of other people's cultures. From a political and a parliamentarian point of view, it's important that we live in an inclusive society, and that fundamentally means I'm accepting and being respectful of other people's cultures and identity.

In addition, I think we're living in an increasingly universal digitized global world. In that space, it's important to be inclusive, to learn more about other cultures, and also to respect diversity in that global space. But we can be also unique in our own ways. That’s why I think it’s an important topic.

Bao Tram: So in Ireland, how are culture and cultural diversity included in development policies?

Emer Currie: I do think it is about respecting difference. Fundamentally, it’s about embracing difference and also building tolerance in society and a safe society, and that's both online and in-person. So we have a new world to navigate and I think what we're doing today, we've really focused on the digital transformation, the role young people play in climate action. And I focused on myself in relation to gender equality and the importance of not just digital transformation in itself, but the impact, the changes that we have to make at community level. So we can't just look at digital transformation like it's a singular entity. It has the intersectionality of digital transformation and will make it effective.

Bao Tram: The 9^th Global Young Parliamentarians Conference has delivered a commitment to protecting and upholding cultural diversity and creating an environment for cultural development. What do you think about this?

Emer Currie: In my opinion, sometimes the countries that have done the least to influence climate change will suffer the most. And so being respectful of someone's, and a country's, cultural background also means that we have to support them and that they are protected in their own unique challenges and in their biodiversity, which is, you know, critical to us all. Their biodiversity is different to where I’m from, but we have to ensure that the countries that are suffering from climate actions are prioritized.

Fine Gael Senator Emer Currie (Photo credit: Steve Humphreys)

Bao Tram: So what should we do to make use of culture and cultural diversity for sustainable development?

Emer Currie: I think that’s about built environment. It’s our heritage sites and our natural ecosystems and the cultural identity we’ve placed upon that. I think there are layers of cultural identity which must be a very important part of our sustainable development goals, in the same way as gender equality is tackling poverty.

All of these things are crosscutting and must be promoted in the same way. What I expect from this conference is empathy – having empathy and more information about what and where each country is in their quest to build gender-equal societies, in tackling poverty, and making sure the people who are most affected by climate change get the support that they need. When you hear about, let’s say, flooding in Pakistan, and when you hear about what's happening in various countries around the world because of climate change, when we are creating our own laws, we need to be thinking not just about ourselves when it comes to climate action. We have to be thinking globally and I think what conferences like this do is they build that awareness and actually they support it with the network of people that you get to meet here, and so you know who to reach out to.

You know what countries to reference when you're talking about climate action, when you're asking people to do something to change their behavior and they don't want to. And we can draw on the experience that we have had here to make that happen. I think being here is critically important and I know myself, I'll be bringing that network and that knowledge back into our Parliament so that we can, some of the parts, come together and that we have a better chance of reaching our goals by 2030.

Bao Tram: Thank you for spending some time talking to VOV. That was Emer Currie, an Irish Fine Gael politician. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in Ireland in terms of members and largest in terms of Irish members of the European Parliament.

Emer Currie: Thank you.