Today marked the start of the third BRICS and SCO Youth Forum at the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students. At the panel discussion concerned the questions of international cooperation between these two organizations.
The Chairman of the Russian Union of Youth (RUY) Pavel Krasnorutsky spoke about his organization's international activities, in particular the SCO Youth Council, which was founded by the RUY. They implement dozens of joint projects and programmes within the SCO and BRICS: the SCO Student Spring, the Russian-Chinese Business Incubator and others. The RUY Chairman expressed his confidence that the Forum would help develop strong, friendly informal relations between the SCO and BRICS member states, and that young leaders would be able to cooperate truly productively in a wide range of areas.
"Young scientists, diplomats, journalists, entrepreneurs and innovators from BRICS and SCO countries are making a significant contribution to the formation of a new level of partnership," said Krasnorutsky.
Chairman of the SCO Youth Council and State Duma Deputy Denis Kravchenko said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an example of successful international initiative aimed at enabling people to live together in peace, broadening inter-cultural dialogue and developing integrative economic processes. Denis Kravchenko made special mention of the SCO Youth Map, an educational programme aiming to increase the mobility of young people in the organization's member-countries. It allows young people to travel at a significant discount and stay in other countries for temporary and permanent work.
"The programme is a combination of several important elements: an international student ID card, a transport card, a bank card and a coalition partner programme. We have agreed with our colleagues to get this project going in the Russian Federation and, if successful, we will consider scaling the project up to cover the SCO member states. In December of this year, the project will be piloted in a number of regions," Kravchenko said.
The President of SCO Business Club Denis Tyurin suggested holding a SCO and BRICS football championship, since not all members of the organizations will be able to participate in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
"We propose to hold a friendly competition between the national youth football teams of the SCO countries," he said. "Naturally, it will not be a closed event, it will be an open one where youth groups from other countries will be invited, in addition to those from full member-countries.
In addition to the idea of the championship, Tyurin talked about the SCO's international business school, where entrepreneurs of all countries are invited to attend lectures.
Vicente Barrientos, President of the BRICS Centre for Business Cooperation, spoke about integration processes in a changing world, and new opportunities for young people which cooperation between these two international organizations can provide. These include academic exchanges, e-education, and various partnership events such as this forum. Barrientos put forward proposals to help young people develop even more: creating business incubators, cultural exchanges, and vocational programmes for teachers.
In addition to the Russian wing of the SCO, the panel discussion also heard from participants from India, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia. They discussed the youth projects being implemented in their countries. After the panel discussion, an agreement signing ceremony was held on cooperation between the RUY and the Russian-Armenian Youth Union, which was represented at the forum by its Co-Chair Rafael Pogosyan.