Second day of the Forum started with the Plenary session on “Role of public diplomacy in strengthening cooperation at the people-to-people level within the sphere of BRICS plus” which was moderated by Suzzane Chelsea Zerin, Assistant Director, BRICS Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The key focus of the session was discussing the key issues of public diplomacy and its role in building intra-group trust between the BRICS plus countries and introducing the participants with many public organizations working in the field of international youth cooperation. The leading public organization led by youth to empower cooperation in BRICS Plus format and provides various opportunities to youth from different countries.
Speakers of the session included:
Andrey Bem, Head of the Project Office, International Youth Cooperation in the “Russia – Central Asian” region direction
Timerkhan Shaikhutdinov, Administrator of Project Office for International Youth Cooperation “Russia — the OIC”
Anita Dkhar, Expert for international cooperation, RPO "BRICS. World of traditions"
Abhinav Sharma, Co-Founder, International Youth Edu-Skills Foundation
Amanda Harumy, Director of international affairs at ANPG and Students' leader at the University's Consil of USP
Natalia Dashuk, representative of Russia-BRICS Project office of International Youth Cooperation
The representatives of the public organization called the participants to partner with their organizations and participate in their projects building a strong youth community.
“We are already aware how in a digital world like today, post covid-19, public diplomacy has a huge role to play in the international arena. With people getting easy access to technology, the world shifting online, public diplomacy is changing models as well as its targets.”
said Suzzane Chelsea Zerin.
A very important plenary session on the topic of “Entrepreneurship, business and economic development” was also held on the same day, which was moderated by Reon Van Der Merwe, Director for Stakeholders, South African BRICS Youth Association. The session focused on financing entrepreneurs, innovation environments, social entrepreneurship, and e-entrepreneurship within BRICS and possibilities of extending economic cooperation within the BRICS Plus format.
The session speakers were:
Pulane Masebe, Department of Small Business Development, South Africa
“Support programs young entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses in South Africa”
Uros Vukanovic, President, Balkan Russian Economic Forum
"BRICS an emerging of new regional economic union"
Sachidanand Swami, Founder and CEO, Invoxel Technologies
"Business environment in India, support from government for foreign business"
Alexey Ezhov, Chairman, Leaders of International Cooperation
“Russian-Chinese Business Accelerator program”
Ivan Shchedrov, Junior Research Fellow, IMEMO RAS, National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations named after E.M. Primakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Smart cities on the agenda of socio-economic development of India"
Dr. Mohd. Nayyer Rahman, Assistant Professor, Aligarh Muslim University
“E-Entrepreneurship in BRICS countries: Understanding the Digital and Hub economy dynamics”
Dr. Alexandra Morozkina, Head of the Structural Reforms Division, Economic Expert Group
“Support to small and medium-sized businesses in Russia in the era of Covid”
"The International Youth Forum BRICS+ is more than just a single event. It's part of a movement among global South youth seeking to stake their in the 21st century globalised world. The session on Entrepreneurship was particularly relevant; to succeed the BRICS bloc must become, first-and-foremost, a catalyst for innovation and common prosperity for current and future generations. SABYA remains an adamant advocate of this vision."
said Reon Van Der Merwe.
“Expert Session: Delegate Project Presentations” became the most interesting and motivating session of forum which was moderated by Anna Popkova, Senior Lecturer, Department of Environmental Safety and Product Quality Management, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) and Deputy Dean for International Activities, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University).
The session was dedicated to participants of the forum to present their projects to experts for feedback and guidance. Experts of the session included:
Alexander Egorychev, Leading specialist expert, Department of International Affairs, "Rosmolodezh" the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs of Russia
Natalia Dashuk, Representative of the Russia-BRICS Project office of International Youth Cooperation
Ivan Shchedrov, Junior Research Fellow, IMEMO RAS, National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations named after E.M. Primakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The most interesting projects were presented in the session which were selected by participants with mutual agreements within group discussions held on the first day of forum. The selected projects were presented by:
Anastasia Ilyushina, Polina Kulakova, Andrey Berezhnov – BRICS Project Lab (Russia)
Manojj Dhinakaran – Inter- Cultural Exchange on Health Aspects (India)
Yauheni Kharuk – BRICS Student Expert and Analytical Community (Belarus)
Cauviya Madhiyazhagan – Kensho Project is a mental health start-up (India)
Muhammad Tahir Bahu – UN Intensive Training for Young Diplomats (Pakistan)
Ekaterina Sennitskaya – School Exchange Internship (Russia)
Aksheyaa Akilan – Health Literacy Youth Summit (India)
Salamat Ismakeeva – Training young village women basic Enterpreunership skills and provide with small grants (Kyrgyzstan)
Marina Sappinen, Sofya Lagokha, Tatiana Kuznetsova – Eco friendly city (Russia)
Daria Podlesnova – YouthBiz (Russia)
Vrushali Kadam – The Future is GREEN: Climate Crisis, Youth Leadership & Green Jobs (India)
Phalguni Sundaram Biswal – SSC (South-South Cooperation) in Trade and Investment (India)
Kiseleva Milena – International centre IDEMY (Russia)
Suhasini Srinivasargvan – Role of Music in achieving SDGs (India)
Rumit Walia – The Future Forward Summit 2022 (India)
Elizaveta Petrovskaia – Annual youth festival at the level of the BRICS countries (Russia)
Experts of the forum gave their recommendations, suggestions and gave important comments for the implementation of these projects. Leading specialist expert, Department of International Affairs, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs of Russia "Rosmolodezh", Alexander Egorychev added in end that the International Youth Forum “BRICS Plus” did a great job in uniting brilliant minds from the whole world and wished that the forum should be organized annually.
“The mission of expert session was to gather young active people from different regions of BRICS and create a discussion platform for the exchange of ideas and get feedback on developed projects. The mission was implemented excellent. The participants’ projected were developed at the high level and devoted for solving extremely actual social and environmental problems and correspond to main Sustainable Development Goals. Why we pay such focus on youth projects? The link between youth and economic, social and green growth should be a straightforward one: young people get on in life, and the economy grows with every step they take.” said Anna Popkova.
During the forum President of the Regional Public Organization “BRICS. World of Traditions” Lyudmila Sekacheva came up with an idea the idea of creation of the "Anthem of the BRICS Peoples", which can be performed in five languages during each five-sided public events in the BRICS countries. To implement this initiative, its
the author proposed to hold a multilateral youth competition for the best text and music of the solemn Anthem, taking into account features of song and musical creativity of the peoples of the BRICS countries.
The forum was concluded with the virtual group photo and closing words by Lyudmila Sekacheva, Kira Ivanova and Akil Mohammad. Participants of the forum thanked the organizers for hosting the event and bringing them together to make new connections.
“In my opinion we concluded the forum with good results and amazing learning experience. We were able to bring young leaders from more than 30 countries with having interest in engaging with BRICS. All the participants were very energetic and full of enthusiasm. We tried to give an opportunity to our delegates to discuss their ideas and projects to develop collaborations internationally for the realization of their ideas. We received more than 300 applications for participation in the forum which including 100 applications with projects in the sphere international cooperation, public diplomacy, business, art and culture. 16 most interesting projects were presented to experts for feedback. I am sure that in the near future we will see many of these projects being practically implemented. We need self-motivated, initiators and innovators to build a strong youth community within BRICS+ format for a bright and peaceful future. These kinds of educational forums really help connecting brilliant minds from different countries and hopefully we would be able to host the event next year in India in offline format”
said Akil Mohammad on the successful completing of the forum.
The second stage of the forum will take place in 2022 in India to work on the practical implementation of the projects presented during online stage. It is also planned to organize a mini-BRICS walk to symbolize intra-BRICS people-to-people contacts and the foundation of "Garden of Friendship & Peace" will be laid down where delegates from each participating country will plant a tree.
Forum Broadcast Links:
Session 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YlApWsq0U4
Session 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmN73XGza9g
Expert Session & Closing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32f3wfLcqg