Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the two-day celebration of ‘Dhaka-OIC Youth Capital 2020’ on tomorrow (Monday) with 100 local and 150 youths from across the globe while 10 of them will get the ‘Bangabandhu Global Youth Award’.
Minister of Culture and Sports of Qatar will hand over the OIC Youth Capital Key from Doha to Dhaka at the virtual inaugural ceremony while OIC secretary-general will join along with several ministers and signatories of a number of OIC member states.
The celebration includes a two-day youth summit titled “Resilient Youth Leadership Summit” under the theme – ‘Parity and Prosperity: For a Resilient Future’.
“This event will be a great opportunity to project the positive branding of Bangladesh highlighting the brilliant works of the youths and share knowledge among the stakeholders,” foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told at a virtual international media briefing here today.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russel and YICF President Taha Ayhan also spoke at the briefing moderated by Algerian youth policy expert Amel Ouchenam.
Mentioning that the event coincides with the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Dr Momen said Dhaka will introduce Bangabandhu Global Youth Award for 10 youths who placed an outstanding contribution in different fields to enlighten the global youths about the legacy and contribution of Bangabandhu.
“The Bangladesh of today – which was originally conceived by Bangabandhu – believes that prosperity cannot be and indeed, ought not be, measured by the number of skyscrapers. We believe that the richer our textures of life are – the richer we are – as individuals and as nations,” he said.
More than 1,200 youths from 74 countries had applied for the participation in the youth summit, of which the organizing committee has short-listed 250 participants, including 100 from Bangladesh and 150 others from OIC Member States and beyond, while proper gender balance has been maintained reflecting Bangladesh’s commitment in women empowerment.
These short-listed participants will connect with the expert panelists from home and abroad to discuss how youth can be engaged to combat COVID19 in the first session on Monday and the justice and accountability issue of the persecuted Rohingya population in the second session on Tuesday.
Noting that the occurrence of the COVID19 has underlying rationale for this year’s ‘Resilience for Parity and Prosperity’, the foreign minister said, “Regardless of language, ethnicity, race, religion, or for that matter, even national boundaries and sovereignty, this deadly menace has caused us to think of ‘humanity’ at the core of each of faith systems.”
About the virtual tour “Rohingya Camp in Cox’s Bazaar” to be organized in collaboration with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and University of Cambridge on Tuesday for the participants, Momen said the tour would sensitize the global youth community about the justice and accountability issues over the persecuted Rohingya people.
At the end of the summit, an ‘outcome document’ will be adopted for further youth action on the volunteerism and humanitarian ground.
The whole Dhaka-OIC Youth Capital 2020 program has been promoted online and social media through a platform named Youth for Global Bangladesh (Y4GBD) which is an initiative of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in close association with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The permanent Y4GBD platform will be used as a tool for engaging youth for business, ideas & innovation, research& development as well as public diplomacy aiming at communicating influential youth leaders across the world to garner support for government’s strategic objectives at international platforms, said the foreign minister.
Speaking on the issue, the state minister for youth said the selection of Dhaka as the Youth Capital will play a significant role to reflect a positive brand image of Bangladesh globally, especially among the youth.
On December 25 last, the Istanbul based Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF), an entity affiliated to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), announced Dhaka as the “OIC Youth Capital 2020” marking a significant recognition for the dynamic and determined leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in the youth sector.
Bangladesh contested for the coveted title since May last year and eventually was shortlisted – along with Kazakhstan and Tunisia – by ICYF before clinching the title on December 25.BSS
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