First Eurasian Congress discussed the role of youth
The World Trade Center hosted the First Eurasian Congress with the participation of officials, heads of leading business structures, representatives of international and public organizations, scientific and expert communities. Young professionals also took part in the discussion of promoting the Eurasian integration idea as part of the session “Strategies for involving youth in the processes of Eurasian integration”, which was organized by the Youth Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission with the assistance of the Council of Young Diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the support of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB).
The session experts noted that youth, which is the core of the emerging human capital, should take a significant place in the development of integration processes and socially significant projects.
Nikolay Podguzov, Chairman of the Board of the EDB, stressed that the main task of the EAEU is to make people live better, they have more comfortable services, they are richer and happier. “The Eurasian Union is a blessing for people, it is their economic viability. The higher potential of this space is what you should probably first of all convey to those around you,” he said. Only young people can properly perceive, propagandize and apply this.
In his opinion, the creation of the EAEU Youth Council, its work and development is extremely important. Therefore, the Eurasian Development Bank will support this initiative. “We are ready to do joint projects and promote the Youth Council. I am sure that new leaders will emerge from the Youth Council, who will clearly understand all the positive aspects of our integration association, form the state policies of our countries based on the fact that together is better than separately,” said Nikolai Podguzov.
Daniyar Turusbekov, Chairman of the EEC Youth Council, Director of the Protocol and Organizational Support Department of the EEC, moderated the session. He noted that in recent years, work with young people has firmly entered the agenda of major international organizations and integration associations. “The importance of involving young people in the integration processes is also discussed by the heads of state of the member states of the Union, because youth is the main driving force,” Daniyar Turusbekov emphasized.
The representative of the EEC said that in the near future there are plans to create the Association of Young Diplomats of the EAEU together with the Council of Young Diplomats of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The work of the association will be aimed at raising the awareness of people about the activities of the Union, about the decisions made, about the existing problems. Young professionals should be aware of all the processes taking place in our Eurasian space, said Daniyar Turusbekov.
Konstantin Kolpakov, Chairman of the Council of Young Diplomats of the Russian Foreign Ministry, expressed confidence in the success of this project and stressed the need to strengthen the interaction of young diplomats and professionals within the EAEU.
Tatyana Seliverstova, head of the international activities department of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), said that Rosmolodezh had launched project offices for international economic cooperation in a number of Russian cities. She expressed hope that the Youth Council will join the activities of the project offices.
According to the dean of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov Elena Vartanova, youth is the future and we need to think about the information and media spheres, there should be no enmity between countries. She proposed to create a network of departments of journalism that would work on joint information multimedia projects.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Grenada to the Russian Federation, Oleg Firer, said that his country supports youth, since youth is their future. “Grenada is a very young country, we have an average age of 31, so we work very close with young people, support their ambitions at the political and diplomatic levels. We are glad to be friends with the EEC, we are open to dialogue and cooperation at the interregional level,” he said.
Strategic Communications Director of VKontakte Konstantin Sidorkov spoke about the planned projects in the EAEU countries and Uzbekistan. Expressed readiness for permanent cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Commission.
Youtube producer Levon Shahinyan spoke about how to attract young people through digital to the Eurasian agenda, and gave negative cases of promoting government agencies in social networks, how not to do it. “Develop a personal brand and do it in social networks, create content that is interesting for young people,” Levon Shahinyan urged.