Rustam Minnikhanov at a meeting with representatives of countries-participants of the Kazan Youth Forum: Today’s generation of young people will define the state policy on the international arena

On 29 August, speaking at his meeting with official representatives of countries-participants of the Kazan Youth Forum – heads of OIC countries departments in youth affairs in the Kazan City Hall, the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov said: “It is a great honor for us to host this large scale international event for the second time. Moreover that it is being held during celebrations of our state holiday of the Day of the Republic.” He underlined that the country attaches great attention to issues of raising children and development of equal opportunities for the youth self-realization as this is the foundation for systemic and sustainable development of Tatarstan and Russia.

Having said that the republic has all necessary infrastructure such as the largest network of children’s summer recreation camps, youth and teenagers clubs and adventure parks in the country, new cities with universities and special economic zones, Rustam Minnikhanov stated that at the same time value orientation of the youth depends on coordinated and skillful work of teachers and mentors at the early ages of children. He informed participants of the meeting about the All-Russia movement of children and youth “The Movement of the First” established in Russia last year and about the educational system of Tatarstan which comprises 1400 schools and 100 colleges, more than 450 youth policy institutions and more than 1 thousand of cultural organizations.

“Development of youth diplomacy, strengthening of youth cooperation is one of our priorities. Youth organizations of Tatarstan actively work with the OIC Youth Forum and are a reliable partner in shaping the youth diplomacy vector, “he said.

Rustam Minnikhanov thanked federal colleagues for trusting the Movement of the First in Tatarstan to become the center of responsibility for developing international youth cooperation and said: “We can see how quickly the pace and role of international youth communications are growing. The time will come when today’s generation of young people will define the state policy on the international arena.”

“I support the idea of a project to develop an institute of “twin-schools as I am sure today it is very important for building the just and multi-polar world”, the Rais of the republic said and concluded: “We see the potential of developing the international youth interaction through exchange programmes and developing joint school initiatives. In this respect Kazan is ready to become a kind of an international youth hub for generation and implementation of joint projects.”

The Chairman of the Russian Movement of children and youth “The Movement of the First” Grigoriy Gurov, the Deputy Head of the Federal Agency on Youth Affairs Damir Fattakhov, the President of the OIC Youth Forum (OIC YF) Taha Ayhan and the Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Salim bin Mohammed Al-Malik were the participants of the meeting.