Promote the Development of Global Youth through Openness, Cooperation and Interconnection

Editorial Note

On February 25, 2022, the GYLD WiseDemo Campaign on Building a Community With a Shared Future On Global Development was held in the form of online live broadcast. Yu Tao, deputy director of the China Foreign Languages Publishing and Distribution Bureau, Wang Huiyao, chairman of the Globalization Think Tank, Jia Wenjian, vice president of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Pan Qingzhong, executive vice president of Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University, David Blair, former senior business columnist of China Daily, honorary editor-in-chief of English of Foreign Languages Publishing House, winner of the Chinese Government Friendship Award and winner of the China Book Special Contribution Award, David Ferguson Ferguson, and other event organizers and senior experts and scholars in various fields were invited to attend the meeting.

Prof. Liu Hongwu, Director of the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, was invited to attend the meeting and delivered a keynote speech entitled “Promoting Global Youth Development with Openness, Cooperation and Connectivity”. He said that young people are the hope for future development. In Africa, where more than 60 percent of the youth population under the age of 24 is concerned, and the future development of Africa is the development of African youth. Therefore, we need to attach great importance to the openness, cooperation and interconnection of education in the countries of the South today, that is, developing countries, to provide young people with more opportunities for education. We need to pay special attention to the construction of transportation infrastructure in developing countries, so that young people in remote rural areas and backward areas have the opportunity to study, and we need to pay attention to the organization of young people around the world. Every country should provide strong security guarantees for young people to grow up in peace and stability.

The following is the text content compiled according to the video of Prof. Liu Hongwu's speech, and issued as follows with the authorization of the speaker:

Prof. Liu Hongwu delivers a keynote speech at the event.

Promote the Development of Global Youth through Openness, Cooperation and Interconnection

I’m very honored and I’m very pleased as a mentor participating in today’s launch of the WiseDemo campaign 2022. So many years ago, as a student I was visiting and studying in Africa. Just like other African young people, I highly valued the development of Africa.  In the past 30 years, as the teacher teaching in university, I worked and learned with the young people from China, Asia and  Africa, and I personally have trained  a lot of African talents and young people. I think that for the future be it the young from China, Asia, India, Arab countries,  or wherever, they actually are all excellent. We should create more opportunities for the youth growth in the future.

We know that in the world of today in developing countries, the populations are featuring with the dominance of young people in actually a relatively long time. The percentage of the young people are increasing in the developing and the least developed countries. For example, 1.4 billion population in Africa, 60 percent of them are between actually below 24. Probably going for twenty years later the total population will be 2 billion. Most of them will be very young. So the future development of Africa is the problem of the development of the young. Right now the young people in Africa are faced with  the very challenging situation in most of the African countries. 70 percent of the young people are dropped free. They are jobless.

They don’t have a vocation. They don’t have a fixed job. In 30 plus African countries, half of the youngsters actually are having no access to the preliminary education.  So about ten years ago, I was visiting Sudan when it got its independence,  I found 80 percent of the kids are illiterate. It’s a very serious reality for African countries.  10 years after that, in South Sudan, well China initiated the first program for the elementary education, middle school education, university education as assistance  to South Sudan.

President Xi Jinping last year in the session of the 76th UNGA made a speech and put forward the “Global Development Initiative”, advocating “Adhere to the Development Priority” and “Adhere to the Action Orientation”. And today I would also like to mention several “Action First” initiatives for our young students to study and explore in the areas of entrepreneurship and innovation.

First of all, we have the highly value and pay high attention to the openness, collaboration and the inter-connectivity of the education in developing countries. The developed countries in particular should provide the platforms and opportunities and chances for the young people in developing countries to the access of education. And they can access to the education so that the future will be full of potential. And actually education is always the priority for poverty eradication in China. At present, the gross enrollment rate of China’s higher education has reached 51.6%, which has achieved universalization of higher education. At the same time, China’s nine-year compulsory education has been fully universalized 10 years ago. Poverty alleviation through education is one of the most important experiences in poverty alleviation in China. Therefore, investing in education is the most important prerequisite for youth development.

  Actually since 2017 China has become the first country or did the top-one country attracting the talents or young talents from African countries, so young people from Africa prefer China rather than US, France, or the UK as the destination for study. Right now, the cooperation on education  between the two areas are actually contributing a lot to the youth development in these two areas.  And China has nearly 90 thousand African students and they have contributed a lot to China’s development and China-Africa cooperation. They study here and after completing their study, they come back and they will actually transfer the experiences of poverty eradication in China to their own homeland. So this is  connectivity.

Another one is that we have to  focus on the infrastructure and also the traffic construction in the developing countries, especially for the remote areas and the rural villages. The traffic system has to be developed for them.  With the road, the people and kids from the mountainous areas can have a way out; with electricity, the kids can  have access to the education. In the past four decades, China’s poverty eradication especially highlighted and featured in the construction of traffic of roads and bridges in its remote areas so that youngster’s development can be realized. So I suggest the international society attach great importance to the construction of the traffic infrastructure and the Global Youth Development Fund be set up.

Third,  we must attach importance to the organization of youth around the world. Every country should provide strong security guarantees for young people to grow up in peace and stability. If a country is in constant political turmoil and has a long-term civil war, it is impossible for young people to invest in the future for a long time. Establishing strong state power and safeguarding national sovereignty are the fundamental prerequisites for young people to grow up. To that end, the international community must act.

The “Global Development Initiative” proposed by President Xi Jinping adheres to “development priority” and “action orientation”. I hope that our “International Wise Demo Campaign” can awaken the international community to action, say less empty slogans, and do more real things that benefit the world’s youth.

Thank You!



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