YOUTH IN ACTION
The FINANCIAL
22/09/2008 15:05 (01:36 minutes ago)
Georgia
The FINANCIAL — The Economic Forum of Young Leaders 2008 has
officially finished an agreement supporting the citizenship education
of young people in Georgia. The agreement between the organizers of
the Forum and Caucasus University (CU) was signed in the presence of
Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze.
"This agreement will enable us to send a minimum of 3 students annually
to the Economic Forum of Young Leaders. On 5 October an international
press conference on media issues will be held in Tbilisi . There will
be delegations from Germany, Ukraine and Eastern European countries,"
Kakha Shengelia, President of CU, said to The FINANCIAL. "We are
going to put more effort into working with our European and North
American partners. More students will be sent to study in Europe,
the USA, Asia and Africa. One of our missions is to make sure that
each of our students spends at least one semester studying abroad."
The situation in the aftermath of the conflict in Georgia was one
of the main topics of the Economic Forum of Young Leaders. Over 300
young leaders of political, economic, social, and non-governmental
organizations from 42 countries from the European Union, Eastern Europe
and the Caucasus took part in the four-day Forum in Nowy SÄ…cz.
"We met about 300 people from different countries of the European
Union at the forum. We’ve made contacts with young leaders from
Poland, Ukraine , Latvia, Lithuania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and
many other countries. Currently we are working on new projects with
our new partners. We will actively take part in the "Youth in Action"
program. This program connects different country representatives and
gives young people the opportunity to get funding for the projects,"
Helen Ghelaghutashvilli, participant of the Economic Forum of Young
Leaders 2008, told The FINANCIAL
The President of Caucasus University (CU), Kakha Shengelia and students
of CU, George Avaliani (sophomore, CSB), Helen Ghelaghutashvilli
(sophomore, CSB), Sophie Sarishvili (senior, CSL) visited Nowy SÄ…cz
(Poland) and attended the "Economic Forum for Young Leaders 2008",
which took place at the beginning of September 2008. Dr. Shengelia
took part in a discussion panel with the following topics "Values
and politics: challenges of XXI century" & "Cultural Heritage and
Business".
There was no participation fee for the students. The travel costs of up
to EUR 350 were covered by the organizational office of the Forum. The
office also provided and covered all expenses of accommodation and
meals during the event.
The Forum is a place of discussion and reflection about important
problems and challenges for Europe. It has a special impact on the
role of the young generation in the process of social and economic
changes on the continent. The subjects of the Forum were as follow:
identity and European values and most of all the meaning of solidarity
in the contemporary world. There were discussions on the issues of
the vision of the European Union, development based on knowledge and
youth workers mobility.
The participants of the Economic Forum were Reinhard Selten (Nobel
Prize laureate in Economics), Giorgi Baramidze (Deputy Prime-Minister
of Georgia), Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz (Prime Minister of Poland),
Viviane Reding (European Commissioner for Information Society and
Media), Robert Sutor (Vice-President of IBM), Leopold Unger (Publisher
of Le Soir) and many others.
Very significant aspects of the Forum were workshops organized by
coaches of the European Union program "Youth in Action". "Informal
education is a useful tool thanks to which young people learn how to
talk. This technique can be successfully applied to politics or in
studying the mechanisms of economy," said Dorota Prymek, a workshop
coach of the "Youth in Action" Programme.
"We are going to actively work with our neighbour Turkish and Armenian
partners. This partnership will entail participating in the process
as a mediator between two parties," said George Avaliani, sophomore
at the Caucasus School of Business.
The coaches of the Programme organized three workshops for
the participants of the Forum: the active role of the youth in
socio-political life; the variability of cultures and fighting against
social exclusion. Divided into small groups, the young leaders prepared
presentations about the most important challenges and problems that
are interwoven in our social lives.
The participants of the workshops also noticed that fighting global
problems is often connected with acting for one’s own local society
"The Forum was on issues that are currently important for the
European Union, such as Europe challenging the 21st century,
Georgia’s integration in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),
increasing the role of young leaders in solving the political issues in
Europe. Despite the fact there was a Russian delegation present at the
Forum all of the countries supported Georgia," noted Sophie Sarishvili,
senior at the Caucasus School of Law, and participant of the Forum.
According to the participants, the Forum establishes the role of the
young generation within the social and economic changes taking place
on the Eurasian Continent.
The parties agreed to exchange information and invitations to
projects and events organized by them; search the participants in
their countries and among partner institutions, elaborate joined
project of political education in future; develop the idea of the
Economic Forum of Young Leaders.
This agreement establishes closer cooperation between the parties in
the process of elaborating political education programmes in Europe
and strategic partnership in organizing the Economic Forum of Young
Leaders.
The Caucasus University is recognized as a strategic partner of the
Economic Forum of Young Leaders. This strategic partnership means
commitment to promotion of the Forum among Georgian organizations,
nomination of the two best young leaders from Georgia as candidates
for participation in the Forum each year; support of the Forum by
inviting guest speakers and outstanding politicians, economists from
Georgia and other European countries. "Common multinational projects,
internships and trainings, as well as support for NGOs are the specific
measurement of the Forum in Nowy SÄ…cz," Giorgi Baramidze summed
up the agreement.
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