A special meeting on the subject of “New leaders of the future” was held within the Crans Montana Forum

A special meeting on the subject of “New leaders of the future” was held within the Crans Montana Forum in Baku, June 30.

First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, Vice-president of the Foundation Leyla Aliyeva participated in the event.

Speeches were delivered on the subjects of “The role of future leaders in a changing world”, “Influence of globalization on the environment” and  discussions held at this event held through the agency of professor of the Scientific Council of the Crans Montana Forum Daniel Varner,

Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation addressed the meeting and said:

- Your Excellency, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen!

I would like to welcome you to our nice city of Baku. I’m hopeful you have been enjoying your stay here.

I would like to talk about a very important subject – the role of Azerbaijani and, in general, world youths in protection of the environment. I would like to talk about the roles of leaders of the future ensuring sustainable development.

As you know, a sustainable development in the world has made protection of the environment a pressing issue. Taking many actions is extremely important in order to solve this issue. Today’s environmental problems both separate nations and prevent from ensuring  all their interests. Therefore, proper management of every country’s natural resources is of paramount importance. This is an important issue also in terms of climate changes. These problems may affect our lives both positively and negatively. This is why we should be able to correctly manage these changes. Changes in the environment make the role of the young generation especially important.

Very good programs and campaigns have been launched in Azerbaijan for the protection of the environment. We invite youths and all people to take part in these campaigns. This job, of course, is being carried out serve the whole nation based on the principles of dialogue, leadership and education. This is, at the same time, a very important issue for the protection of the environment and ensuring sustainable development. Regional and international relations are essential in order to ensure cooperation in the whole world in this direction.

As you know, the Republic of Azerbaijan has nine of eleven existing climate conditions. And this make the nature of Azerbaijan very rich. There are very important tasks ahead of us in order to protect the rich environment of Azerbaijan. These include protection of the environment, prevention of contamination of water and soil, and preservation thereof. In order to solve all the issues we are concerned of, we have ensured active involvemet of youth in this process.

In my meetings in Geneva a week ago, I had raised all these issues. I had told that these issues were very important both in Azerbaijan and in the whole Caucasian region.

Issues concerning the environment are very important for us. Therefore, we should start teaching these issues from classrooms. To my mind, thereby children would be provided with information concerning the protection of environment in the country they live in. I think this will be of great importance in terms of answering ecological calls.

A clean environment starts with clean and pure society. Therefore, I think such thoughts should be implanted in people. Technological processes not damaging the environment should be used, energy resources saved etc. Solution of these issues would ensure the future of our planet. Solution of these issues is also very much dependent on our lifestyle. Therefore, we should be responsible for our acts, using all existing possibilities.

As a result of long lasting production of oil and gas during the Soviet time, contamination has occurred both at sea and also on land. And this was left to our independent country as a problem. Solving these problems is one of the primary tasks for an independent Azerbaijan. Taking all these into account, we have started our action.

Mobilisation of all the youth was very important for the solution of these issues. Solution of these issues for a country, which has just regained its state independence, has been made more complicated with occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia. This has created great difficulties in the region of the Southern Caucasus too. As you know, these territories have very rich ecosystem, flora and fauna. We declared 2010 “The Year of  Ecology” in Azerbaijan. Within this campaign we have planted hundreds of thousands of trees. This campaign was agitated among the youth.

As you know, the Azerbaijani population is one of the youngest population in the world. Therefore, we try to implant all these issues in our young people. Various events are held and exhibitions organized to this end. Through all these, we inform our youth of the issues existing both in our country and in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Millennium’s Development Targets have been adopted to protect the world environment and ensure sustainable development. The primary objective was to give people the opportunity to make decisions in this sphere, and attract them to this process. I think all countries have an obligation in connection with ensuring the “green economy”. If these obligations are met, sustainable economic development will also become the reality. I’m confident sustainable economic development and the process of sustainable protection of environment will be ensured with active participation of youth.

Moreover, I think efficient education is needed to implement efficient actions plan. Therefore, we are ready both to learn and to teach. We invite you to join these initiatives.

I’m hopeful you will indeed enjoy your stay in Baku and will have only good memories about Baku.

Thank you for your attention.

X X X

Famous American journalist Larry King, the host of the “Larry King Live”  talk-show, which had been aired on CNN News Channel from 1985 to 2010, said the development process he saw in Azerbaijan has greatly impressed on him. Talking of the essence of the subject, he emphasized the importance of addressing issues associated with the health conditions of the future generations, and brought to attention that youth, new leaders of the future, may play an essential role in  solving this issue. Larry King said in his speech: “If we protect the environment, do not let the environment  get contaminated, then we would have taken care of people, our own world, even our babies not born yet.”

President of the Entrepreneurs Confederation of Algeria Bualem M’Rakash talked of the role of young leaders in ensuring the safe future, and underlined the importance of the event from this point of view. Emphasizing the necessity of mobilizing forces in order to remove serious after-effects generated by ecological problems, B.M.Rakash brought to attention that care and attention shown to youth in Azerbaijan is at a high level.

Member of the European Parliament Nirj Deva said she was pleased to hear Mrs. Leyla Aliyeva sound optimistic thoughts in her speech about the environment. She highly assessed the initiative by Mrs. Leyla Aliyeva in connection with the environment, and projects she implemented in this direction.

Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan for political analysis and provision of information Elnur Aslanov said future leaders will play a very important role in  a changing world. Emphasizing that youth policy was one of the priority issues of the state of Azerbaijan, the head of the department  said over 15 thousand Azerbaijani students will be sent to foreign countries for education in accordance with the “A State Program on Education of Azerbaijani Youths in Foreign Countries in 2007 - 2015”.

President of the National Youth Council of Mali Siriman Traore and deputy chairman of the “Eswaran Brothers Exports Ltd” organization of Sri Lanka Sunramaniam Eassuwaren talked in their speeches of the important role of young leaders in solution of existing problems in the environmental sphere and in a number of other spheres, and underlined that they are also responsible for future generations’ living in a healthy environment.

Speakers emphasized the importance of pressing issues discussed in this meeting organized within the Crans Montana Forum and noted the essence of holding this kind of events frequently, where youth are made very important calls.

Then questions were answered.

In a response to the question concerning the activity of the IDEA environment campaign and projects implemented, Mrs. Leyla Aliyeva said this campaign is the biggest organization in the region dealing with environmental issues. Giving special importance to cooperation with youth, this campaign has a creative approach to protection of the environment.  

Talking of numerous  projects implemented by the IDEA campaign, Mrs. Leyla Aliyeva underlined that a lot of works have been done towards involving more young people in the organization’s activity and that successful results have been made in this direction.