06 apr. 2016

Our Region’s Most Valuable Economic Asset

 

The speech of His Royal Highness Prince Radu of Romania to the 19th Marmara Eurasiatic Economic Summit, Istanbul, 6 April 2016

 

 

Mr Chairman,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is indeed a privilege to return to the Marmara Summit and to have the opportunity to discuss some of the most vital issues affecting our part of the world together with leading figures of public life representing more than forty countries.

Over the last decade I have been witness to the efforts of the Istanbul Eurasiatic Economic Summit in bringing together people, ideas and cultures, in building trust and understanding between our societies, and in making the rest of today’s world aware of the importance of the Middle East, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Indeed, topics such as energy, forced migration and terrorism are crucial for all of us. And I know how much emphasis the summit will lay on these issues.

However, in this short speech I would like to talk about what I consider to be the most important asset for the development of our countries. As you well know, the younger generation is very numerous in most of the countries of our region. In Turkey, for example, of eighty million inhabitants forty-one per cent are under the age of twenty-five. We have to make sure that our young people receive a solid education and preparation for the demanding challenges of the present and those of the years to come.

In my country, one out of four young people goes to university and a large number of them study in the world’s most prestigious institutions. This has never happened before in the whole of our history. In addition, we have never had such a large number of young people travelling to and building a career in other countries around the world.

I personally believe that our societies’ most important responsibility is to make sure that our younger generation receive a proper education and training, even if this means they have to live abroad for a number of years.

Furthermore, it will be crucial in years to come that we create economic projects attractive enough to make them come back and put into practice what they have learned elsewhere in the world.

Finally, the most important, but also the most difficult thing to achieve is to create conditions at home that will encourage them to return and spend the rest of their lives in their native country.

Our young people’s energy and creativity is priceless, immeasurable, and inexhaustible. I have been able to observe at close hand the way children, adolescents and young adults in my country react to the changes in our society and adapt to new realities. They are very quick to absorb new information and knowledge. They are also able, if informed and assisted, to become competent and productive.

Our part of the world experienced a delay in consolidating democracy and the economy and in guaranteeing freedoms and the rule of law. If we understand the power of the younger generation’s contribution to our countries’ development, we will be able to achieve the predictability, respectability and consolidation we dream of.

 

Thank you for your attention.