International Youth Diplomacy League co-organized the G20 Youth Forum 2013
International Youth Diplomacy League co-organized the G20 Youth Forum 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 17-21, 2013
G20 Youth Forum 2013 was the largest international event organized for young leaders in 2013, and over 1500 young leaders, students and academics, young members of parliaments, representatives of the business world and governments participated in it.
The unique concept of the event was created by Ksenia Khoruzhnikova, G8&G20 Alumni Association Founder and President, President of the International Youth Diplomacy League back in 2005. In 2013 it has been the 8th edition of the event.
The G20 Youth Forum 2013 had 3 main events which run in tandem with each other:
I. G20 Youth Summit participants were eminent students and young experts in the field of international relations, economics, finance and law who were nominated by the presidents of their universities and institutions to become young head of state or ministers in the national youth delegations to the G20 Youth Summit.
Five committees worked in parallel to discuss the agenda and create the Communiqué:
1. Entrepreneurial Climate for Youth
2. Family and Career Opportunities for Young People
3. Vision of the School and University of the Future
4. The City of Tomorrow
5. The Tax System of Tomorrow
The result of a 3-day G20 Youth Summit was the final Communiqué (recommendations) discussed and approved by the participants. The Communiqué is being disseminated throughout the world and shared, in particular, with the G20 Heads of States and leading international organizations such as IMF, World Bank, OECD, European Commission, or Basel Committee of Banking Supervision.
II. Conference was an international academic event for representatives from the 200 best Universities in the world who are experts in international relations, economics, finance and law. Eight round tables worked in parallel: presentations by academics and students followed by discussions:
1. World Economy and Finance
2. World Politics and International relations
3. Innovations, Technology and Science
4. Social Dimension: Culture and Mass Media
5. Ecology, Environment, Energy and Food security
6. Law and Legislation 7. Social Dimension: Health and Wellbeing
8. Social Dimension: Youh, Education and Gender
The articles submitted for the Conference were published in the Conference Proceedings.
III. International Young Parliamentarians' Debate was a meeting of international young parliamentarians from all the G20 countries, who are under 45 years of age, with the purpose of exchanging ideas and experience in all the aspects of creating and implementing legislation. The general group was divided into 2 debating committees: 1. Committee on international social affairs;
2. Committee on business and entrepreneurship, innovations, transport and energy;
At the conclusion of the International Young Parliamentarians’ Debate a joint statement and declaration of cooperation between all the young G20 parliamentarians have been issued.
G20 Youth Forum Opening ceremony and plenary session were held on April 18 in the Blue hall hotel «Park Inn Pribaltiyskaya". The Opening ceremony started with the welcome speech by Guest of Honor Prof. Dr. Vladimir N. Vasiliev, Rector of the National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Chairman of the Council of Rectors of St. Petersburg Universities. The topic of the plenary session discussion was “Youth & Education: challenges of the future”. Participants of the plenary session:
- Moderator: Nikolai R. Toivonen, Vice-President for Innovations, Saint-Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Russia
- Ms. Ksenia Khoruzhnikova, Founder and President, G8 & G20 Alumni Association, Switzerland
- Ms. Jenny Mikakos, Member of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia
- Prof. Runhui Lin, Professor, Nankai University, China
- Dr. Maneesh Kumar, Lecturer, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, United Kingdom
- Mr. Peter Vogel, Serial Entrepreneur and PhD student, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland,
In order to inspire the G20 Youth Forum participants on the mutual work G8 & G20 Alumni Association prepared an interesting and creative atmosphere of the evening activities: G20 Youth Forum Opening Cocktail Reception and Classical Concert and Grand Imperial Ball “The Silver Angel” and closing Gala Dinner. These evening events were held in the atmosphere of the Russia's Silver period (early XX century). Elegant traditions were aimed to support a positive emotional mood and help to develop personal trust and friendship between all the participants of the Forum. G20 Youth Forum Opening Cocktail Reception included Gala Concert of classical music. The participants of the Concert were: Timur Abdikeyev – opera soloist of Mariinsky State Opera Theatre, Regina Rustamova, Opera soloist, Mariinskiy Opera Theatre, Oleg Vaynshtein – Prize winner of classical piano international competitions, Alexander and Natalia Berezhnovs – multiple prize winners of international ballroom contests. Finally, that was creation of “picture of the world of tomorrow” by internationally renowned painters Tamara Semenova and Azat Mamedinov and G20 Youth Forum Participants. The main highlight of the closing Gala Dinner was Russian cuisine traditional of 1913. Grand Imperial Ball “The Silver Angel” was opened with traditional dance «Polonaise» performed by all the participants and the guests of the Ball. The dancing couples were accompanied by Youth Symphony Orchestra St. Petersburg Sinfonietta, The conductor - Maxim Valkov. We sincerely consider that culture and art are a significant part of the way of life of any contemporary and successful person and we hope that these evening events helped the productive work of the G20 Youth Forum.
The International Youth Diplomacy League will continue it`s partnership with G8 & G20 Alumni Association on future events. The G8 & G20 Alumni Association is a Swiss-based association which reunites the alumni of the G8 & G20 Youth Summits' as well as independent experts in areas relevant to G8 & G20.The Headquarter of the G8 & G20 Alumni Association is based in Geneva, Switzerland.