Ladies and gentlemen,

I welcome you all to today’s press briefing.

It is a great honor and recognition that Bangladesh won the coveted “OIC Youth Capital 2020” by proving her merit in matters related to innovation, sports, culture and inclusive youth leadership. It marks a significant recognition for the dynamic and determined leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Government. The ICYF - Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum - an OIC affiliate, made this declaration on 25 December 2019. We are trying to live up to the high benchmarks created in the previous iteration. In this regard, I would like to remind you that Bangladesh, in partnership with ICYF, hosted the very first OIC Youth CFM as the youth segment of the 45^th CFM of OIC in 2018.

We were expected to launch this event sequence in April 2020. But the COVID19 pushed us back. Now – we have remodeled and relaunched ourselves on the web-platform. Additionally, we have reasons to believe that the occurrence of the COVID19 has only accentuated the underlying rationale for the theme of this year’s edition ‘Resilience for Parity and Prosperity’. COVID19 has shown the world that the whole of the human civilization is one.  This Pandemic did not discriminate between rich and poor, developed or non-developed community, nor  your language ethnicity, colour, race or religion.  Therefore, it provided by a new opportunity to work together to help humanity and end hatred and discrimination across nations and races and youth can do it. They can take the leadership role. Neither stock pile of weapons of mass destruction or nuclear bombs can save lives.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The OIC Youth Capital 2020 is an important programme for not only the OIC but also for Bangladesh. It coincides with the Birth Centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Bangladesh of today – which was originally conceived by Bangabandhu – believes that prosperity cannot be and indeed, ought not be, measured by the number of skyscrapers. We believe that the richer our textures of life are – the richer we are – as individuals and as nations. In Bangladesh, from the blood-soaked wars and scorched earth of 1971 – we have come a long way.

We are lucky that Bangladesh is a land of young people and nearly 60% of its population is between age 15 and 54 years; and nearly 27% are below the age of 15 years. Only 6.5 % are above 65+ years. We have nearly 6,000000 young man and women engaged as free lance IT professionals.

Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has given her kind consent to inaugurate OIC Youth Capital 2020 on 27 July 2020 virtually. High level dignitaries including Hon’ble Youth & Sports Minister of Qatar, Hon’ble Youth and Sports Minister of Azerbaijan, Hon’bleSecretary General of OIC, President of Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) will grace the inauguration with their kind presence. This event will be followed by “Resilient Youth Leadership Summit” on 27-28 July 2020. Ministers, Diplomats, Dignitaries and 250 youth representatives from OIC member states and beyond will attend the event.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

More than 1200 youths from 74 countrieshad applied for the participation in Resilient Youth Leadership Summit, from which the organizing committee have short-listed 250 participants of which 100 are Bangladeshis and 150 are non-Bangladeshis from OIC Member States and beyond. Proper gender balance has been maintained during the shortlisting reflecting the position of Bangladesh in women empowerment.  These short-listed participants will connect with the expert panelists from Home and Abroad to discuss how youth can be engaged to combat COVID19 in the first session on 27 July 2020 and the justice and accountability issue of the persecuted Rohingya population in the second session on 28 July 2020. 

            As a part of the “Resilient Youth Leadership Summit”, a virtual tour of the “Rohingya Camp in Cox’s Bazaar” will be organized in collaboration with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and University of Cambridge for the shortlisted participants.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The whole Dhaka-OIC Youth Capital 2020 program has been promoted online and social media through a platform named Youth for Global Bangladesh (Y4GBD) which is an initiative of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in close association with Ministry of Youth and Sports. The Youth for Global Bangladesh (Y4GBD) is basically initiated in order to celebrate Dhaka-OIC Youth Capital 2020 and to create a permanent platform to engage youths across the globe to promote the interest of Bangladesh. This platform will be used as a tool for engaging youth for business, ideas & innovation, research& development as well as public diplomacy aiming at communicating influential youth leaders across the world to garner support for government’s strategic objectives at international platforms. In this age of 4th Industrial Revolution, youth will continue to play important role in effective innovation and implementation of technologies for advancements of economic and social development. In the process “Youth for Global Bangladesh” could be userdeveloped as an effective tool for engaging the ever energetic and enthusiastic youth community in the future diplomatic outreach purposes.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To cushion against the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to support our migrant workers living in OIC member states during this crisis, we have proposed to establish primarily a 100 million USD fund titled "OIC Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund." The objective of the fund will be to undertake joint projects with the host authorities to help retaining jobs of the resident migrant workers through Re-skilling and upskilling to adapt to the changed situation.

We may also take initiative to utilise part of the proposed "OIC Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund" to award and patronize the winners in the event titled "Entrepreneurship, Skill and Employment Camp". We can leverage this event to generate employment for both residents and migrant workers.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The year-long eventscoincide with the Birth Centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. To celebrate the Mujib Year 2020 and to enlighten the global youths about the legacy and contribution of Bangabandhu, we are going to introduce Bangabandhu Global Youth Award for the global youths for that outstanding contribution in the field of Innovation, Environment, Humanitarianism, Sports, Culture & Arts and Entrepreneurship.

This event will be a great opportunity to project the positive branding of Bangladesh high lighting the brilliant works of the youths and share knowledge among the stakeholders. This event will surely infuse a positive energy among youth and bind us into a stronger fraternity.

Bangladesh is a wonderful country of 165 million people and it is criss crossed by hundreds of mighty rivers. It is a land of opportunities, a great destination for tourists to unfathom the beauty of nature. Last we hope that covid 19 will be over soon and then you, the youth , the future of the world are moist welcome to visit us.

            I thank you all.

Joi Bangla, Joi Bangabandhu.