KABUL - The president, who met members of the Youth Parliament at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday evening, thanked the youth for playing an active role for promotion of democracy and called them the ‘key to the national unity.”
Ghani was quoted as saying in a statement from the Presidential Palace said a special amount of money would be also allocated to the fund for the youth parliament. He asked members of the parliament to share their suggestions with the government.
Ghani said youths’ meetings should be coordinated with relevant organs and their problems heard across the country on a monthly basis and then shared with the Presidential Palace.
A high-level youth counseling section would be also created at the Presidential Palace to follow and implement youths’ plans and programs, the president added.
Ghani said a high council would be created to work for changes to academic and higher education curriculums. “Youth’s role is important in this area and they should share their suggestions and plans”, he added.
He said the youth should attend High Economic Council meetings and learn about planning and programming.
“The current developments are not enough and there is a need for change, particularly in the health and sports sector”, said the president, who called for elections in the Olympic committee and federations through the Independent Election Commission (IEC).
The government also allocated budget for Afghan athletes competing in 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, he said.
Ghani said economic situation of the country was improving and stressed changing mind from consumption to production and asked the young Afghan generation to become regional specialists.
He added the youth should be aware of their natural resources, particularly of water as they would be managers of the resources in future.
He stressed sustained job opportunities for the youth and said Afghanistan was bestowed with massive natural deposits and their exploitation would generate jobs.
The president termed national unity a huge asset for the country and said there was the need for deep social relations irrespective of tribe and ethnic affiliations because everyone was Afghan in this country.
He said the government would not allow social divisions and the young generation as future representatives of Afghanistan would keep the national unity intact.
“Our enemies despite their all efforts to divide us would not be able to send us back to the dark age and it is our mission,” Ghani said.
He said Afghanistan did not belong to a single tribe and a handful of individuals who wanted to impose own agenda should not succeed.
Khaleda Khelwat, deputy head of the Youth Parliament, thanked the president for his attention to the youth affairs and asked him to implement youth-related programs. She highlighted various issues the youth faced and stressed their solution.
Dr. Kamal Sadaat, deputy head of youth affairs at the information and cultural affairs ministry, thanked President Ghani for his support to the youth and hailed the creation of learning parliament and offered best wishes to the youth for good governance.
He said a five-year strategic plan requested by the youth had been prepared and some parts of the plan were being implemented. (Pajhwok)