Seychelles at the China-Africa Youth Festival-New platform for the strengthening of cooperation |29 August 2009

“Youth is the hope and future of a nation – therefore it should be given opportunities to exchange ideas and share opinions with colleagues from other countries.”

These are the words of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, speaking at the opening ceremony of the third China-Africa Youth Festival in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 14.

The festival – organised by the All-China Youth Federation – was aimed at strengthening the China-Africa youth exchange and cooperation programme.

Mr Savy (2nd left,photo above) with representatives of Jilin provincial government

The volunteer hosts of the ACYF

It was an initiative of Chinese President Hu Jintao following his state visit to Africa in February 2007 and gathered 177 youth representatives from 48 African countries.

Seychelles was represented at the event, from August 13-21, by director for planning and international cooperation in the Youth Division Michel Savy – who also headed the delegation – young entrepreneur Jerina Longobardi, representative of the Parti Lepep youth committee Marie-Paule Tambara and Seychelles Nation journalist Roland Duval.

Premier Wen described the festival as a platform for development and exchange between young Chinese and Africans, and also an opportunity to bring China and the African countries closer together as one big family.

He advised the young delegates to adopt a sense of mutual respect and equality and to treat differences with tolerance.

This, he said, will help them to win friendship, trust and respect.
“Help one another with sincerity so that you can bring and receive happiness,” he added.

Mr Wen promised China’s continuing support for the development and wellbeing of the African youth.

And he ended by quoting late Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s famous statement on the China-Africa connection: “It is our African brothers that carried us into the United Nations.”

Young Chinese volunteers who are being sent to Africa gave their oath before the prime minister during the ceremony.

Setting up fruitful links

Apart from renewing existing links with China and other African countries, the festival was a chance to set up new relations in the field of youth development.

Mr Savy explained that bilateral cooperation with the ACYF is very healthy. This, he said, was confirmed last year during a visit to Seychelles by the federation when donations of equipment for a new internet café at Anse Boileau – to be opened soon – were agreed on.

He said meetings with delegates from the provinces of Jilin and Changchun have opened up doors for further cooperation, not only in the field of youth development but in other areas such as community development and agriculture.

Proposals will be sent to various local bodies to explore possible links, he added.

In terms of new links, Mr Savy said the festival was the ideal occasion to consider African countries with which bilateral cooperation is dormant or does not exist at all.

New contacts were made with Maghreb countries such as Morocco and Tunisia, and also with Egypt. Formal links are now awaited so that possible exchanges in youth development can be explored.

Other countries including Lesotho asked for Seychelles’ help to set up their national youth councils based on our model and experiences.

Informal talks were also held in which young people from the Southern African Development Community countries looked at the possibility of setting up a youth forum.

While in Beijing, the Seychellois delegation also had the chance to meet up with our ambassador to China, Philippe Le Gall.

The All-China Youth Federation

Set up in 1949, the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) is the most powerful federated body of Chinese youth organisations and young leaders.

Through its 52 member organisations and 1,651 individual national members, it reaches over 300 million young people across China.

Its aim is to promote youth involvement and development, to protect legitimate rights and to serve the needs of Chinese youth.

The ACYF runs programmes and activities in the fields of education and training, employment, protection of rights and interests, voluntary service, environmental protection, culture and sports, youth participation, science and technology innovations, commendations and awards for outstanding young people.

Due to its significant contributions to youth and society, the ACYF was given the World Youth Award by the United Nations, and the Human Resources Development Award by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

It now carries out international exchanges with 250 organisations in more than 130 countries, including international groups, governmental youth agencies, youth councils and other youth organisations.
 
Chinese help for foreign countries

During a meeting with Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying, the young delegates learned about China’s basic policies regarding aid to foreign countries.

China considers help to other developing countries in economic difficulties as an international obligation. Its help to others is sincere, unselfish, neither interfering in recipient countries’ internal affairs nor seeking any political privilege.

It is, rather, a kind of mutual help between friends and belongs to the category of South-South cooperation.

As a developing country itself, China is still working hard to help other developing countries boost their capacity for self-development while promoting its own economic and social development.

Its government also helps to promote social progress and allow people to enjoy concrete benefits, mainly through government-to-government economic and technical cooperation.

Chinese historical and cultural sites

The young Seychellois visitors were given the chance to see the sights of Beijing – including the Forbidden City – and other highlights such as the Great Wall.

Since it became the nation’s capital in 1949, the rapid development of Beijing has changed the city’s appearance dramatically.

While preserving its features as an ancient capital, Beijing today is truly a modern international city.

From Shanhaiguan, northeast of Qinhuangdao City on the east coast, the Great Wall rises and falls with the contours of the mountain westwards, crossing provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu for 6,700km, to end at Jiayuguan, southwest of Jiayuguan City in Gansu Province.

Construction of the wall began during the spring and autumn period (770-476BC) and the Warring States period (475-221BC) during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Ducal states at that time built walls to defend their own territories, and after the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty crushed all the rival states, he founded the first centralised and unified dynasty in Chinese history.

The Palace Museum (Forbidden City) – historically and artistically one of the most comprehensive Chinese museums – was set up on the foundations of the palace that was the ritual centre of two dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, and their collection of treasures.

Designated by the State Council as one of China’s key protected monuments in 1961, the Palace Museum was also made a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Site in 1987.

The Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall is designed to introduce the long history of the immortal city of Beijing and also to display the great achievements of its modern urban planning and development.

The 16,000 square-metre floor space is distributed on four floor levels in the hall, with 8,000 square metres of exhibits.

Proposals from the youth of Africa and China

Charged with the task of building their own countries while carrying forward the Africa-China friendship, young people have a responsibility to boost all-round cooperation and achieve harmonious development for their people as well as to pass on that friendship from generation to generation.

With this in mind, the young delegates came up with a set of proposals, signed by all of them, to:

? Take an active part in China-Africa youth exchanges and cooperation programmes to boost mutual understanding and friendship and carry them forward for generations to come;

? Encourage and support active involvement of young entrepreneurs in China-Africa trade and economic cooperation to promote win-win progress and common development of China and Africa;

? Call on all young people to engage in voluntary service and share experiences, and boost youth cooperation in voluntary work to arouse enthusiasm for national development and social services among the youth in China and the African countries;

? Further step up China-Africa cooperation in human resources development and organise training programmes for youth workers to promote the development of young people in China and Africa and lay a solid human resources foundation for everlasting China-Africa friendship;

? Vigorously promote exchanges and more extensive cooperation between the youth organisations of China and Africa in areas such as environmental protection, medical and health care, education and employment and also dedicate energy to economic growth, sustainable development and a better life for the people.