Tashkent hub of the SCO Youth Platform has opened

Youth issues are one of the priorities of the SCO and the SCO Public Diplomacy Center in Uzbekistan and are aimed at its involvement in interstate cultural, economic, scientific and educational processes.

The Samarkand Declaration of the September summit of the heads of the SCO member states highlighted the importance of strengthening youth cooperation, full support for youth initiatives, including the importance of developing the volunteer movement in the republic. These issues were put into practice in the Comprehensive Plan for 2023-2027 adopted at the Samarkand SCO Summit on the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty on Long-term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation of the member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

In order to implement the Joint Appeal of the heads of state to youth and the Action Program for its implementation, put forward at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan in 2018 at the SCO summit in Qingdao, as well as the initiative of the head of the republic to support youth, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Center and the Youth Platform of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization SCOLAR Network.    

SCOLAR Network is a platform that unites young leaders from the SCO countries in order to strengthen international ties, stimulate dialogue and promote regional development. As part of the implementation of this memorandum, the parties worked out the issue of creating a Tashkent hub of the SCOLAR Network youth platform for the SCO countries.

On February 4, the opening ceremony of the youth hub was held, which was attended by Kabuljon Sabirov, Director of the SCO People's Diplomacy Center in Uzbekistan, Odilbek Yusupdjanov, Vice-rector of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Victoria Hu, head of the SCOLAR Network youth platform and activists of youth hubs in Astana, Bishkek, Islamabad, Nizhny Novgorod, Beijing and Lahore.

The youth hub was created on the basis of the SCO People's Diplomacy Center in Uzbekistan with the support of the SCOLAR Network and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy. The members of the newly created hub will be students of UMED, higher educational institutions, young specialists and active youth of Uzbekistan.

The Vice-Rector of UMED Odilbek Yusupdjanov noted that cooperation in the field of work with youth serves to strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between peoples, to ensure the sustainability of universal values. “This is certainly an opportunity to unite the efforts of young leaders in order to strengthen international relations through the tools of people's diplomacy. I am sure that Tashkent youth will come out with even more innovative ideas for the benefit of the development of our common region!” – said the vice-rector.

Director of the SCO Public Diplomacy Center in Uzbekistan K. Sabirov stressed in his speech that its creation will allow activating an important platform for the educational and professional growth of young leaders of the country, generating their new ideas for extensive activities in various fields, including enhancing their participation in the implementation of national projects. The new structure will provide broader opportunities for the youth of Uzbekistan to communicate with peers from SCO member and observer countries, exchange ideas on important issues of global development, and will also contribute to the disclosure of the creative, social, educational, spiritual and moral potential of the younger generation, strengthen friendship and mutual understanding between young people of the Organization's member countries.

In his welcoming speech, the Director of the International Institute of Central Asia, former SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov, noted that the SCO member states attach great importance to the development of youth cooperation aimed at promoting the physical, mental and spiritual development of the younger generation, involving them in large-scale joint development plans. And therefore, this initiative is aimed at providing decent conditions for the professional and personal development of Uzbekistan's youth, their involvement in large–scale development plans of the organization's member states.

Victoria Hu, Chairman of the SCOLAR Network Youth Platform, congratulated the participants on the opening of the first SCOLAR branch in Uzbekistan in Tashkent, and also stressed the great work that was done by the SCOLAR team in Tashkent to open a branch. She thanked the SCO Public Diplomacy Center in Uzbekistan and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy for supporting common initiatives, as well as V.I. Norov, who laid the foundation for opening a branch in Tashkent during the Eighth SCO Model in Uzbekistan in 2021. Victoria expressed confidence that the SCOLAR branch in Tashkent will make a significant contribution to the development of the youth movement in the country and serve as an example for attracting young people from other cities.

During the event, information was provided on the priority areas of the hub's activities and the composition of its members, as well as a Roadmap on its activities for 2023 was approved. In particular, during the year it is planned to hold the SCO Model, intellectual games, environmental actions, training seminars, flash mobs and competitions together with the youth of the SCO member states.

The Tashkent hub will undoubtedly serve as an important platform for the youth of Uzbekistan to communicate with peers from SCO member and observer countries, exchange ideas on important issues of global development.