CIDCA vice-chairman delivers keynote speech at 2023 World Youth Development Forum

On Oct 30, 2023, the 2023 World Youth Development Forum (WYDF) kicked off in Beijing. Deng Boqing, vice-chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), attended the event and delivered a keynote speech.

Deng said that development is the eternal theme of human society, and that youth have played a significant role, not only as witnesses and beneficiaries of but also as participants in and contributors to global development. In this regard, the CIDCA has attached great importance to international cooperation in the field of youth development and actively endeavored to empower young people in developing countries in a vast variety of ways, including short-term training, diploma education, Luban Workshops, and Confucius Institutes, according to Deng. 

During the First High-Level Conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development held in Beijing in July, China, alongside the United Nations system in China and other parties, established the Youth Leaders' Community for Global Development to support more young people in participating in global development cooperation, Deng said. He expressed the hope that young people will cultivate a sense of responsibility for the international community, work together for global development, enhance their abilities and skills to address global challenges, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning, and participate in global governance. 

Noting that the CIDCA is a special supporting organization for the forum, he said the agency has decided to include the first batch of exemplary projects of the "Action Plan for Global Youth Development" into the Global Development Project Pool. The agency will select the best ones among these projects for further development by innovating financial support and strengthening policy guidance, he added. 

The WYDF and the Action Plan for Global Youth Development are both important measures proposed by China at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in June 2022. The 2023 WYDF was hosted by the All-China Youth Federation and WYDF Organizing Committee and supported by the CIDCA. More than 2,000 young representatives from over 130 countries participated in the forum either on or offline. 

Losang Jamcan, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and Xu Haoliang, UN under-secretary-general and associate administrator of the UN Development Programme, delivered opening remarks via video link.