Minister of Youth & Sports and President of Alexandria University Inaugurate 4th Youth Visions Salon at Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Dr. Ashraf Sobhi, Minister of Youth and Sports, and Professor Dr. Abdelaziz Konsowa, President of Alexandria University, inaugurated yesterday, Sunday, April 28, 2024, the fourth edition of the “Youth Visions Salon” at the Library of Alexandria, which is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Higher Education, and the National Alliance for Private Development Action, in coordination with Dr. Dina Helali, member of the Senate and founder of the Youth Visions Salon.
The opening session of the salon was attended by Dr. Osama El-Azhari, Advisor to the President of the Republic for Religious Affairs, vice presidents of the University, a number of deans and vice deans of faculties and institutes at Alexandria University, Mr. Talaat Abdelqawi, Member of the House of Representatives and a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Alliance for Civil and Development Work, Dr. Youssef Amer, Chairman of the Committee of Religious Affairs at the Senate, in addition to several members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, civil society organizations, and many youth and party entities from various Egyptian universities.
In his speech, Dr. Ashraf Sobhi emphasized that the salon is a leading youth platform for exchanging dialogue between officials and young people in order to increase awareness of the nation’s issues and contribute to presenting a national vision towards building the new republic. He added that the Ministry of Youth and Sports has launched many strategies that will support young people and adopt their ideas. The Ministry launched the National Youth Strategy that was linked to Egypt’s Vision 2030 to create a state of science and work. Sobhi indicated that he hopes that this salon will be a real opportunity to discuss contemporary societal issues, present visions, and find innovative solutions to address all problems, especially since this salon is an opportunity for young people to discuss their ideas in the presence of officials and specialized experts.
While Dr. Abdelaziz Konsowa stressed that Alexandria University plays an important role in raising young people, especially since they represent the present and the future, adding that Alexandria University adopts a strategy that aims to link scientific research with the labour market in order to graduate students qualified for the local, regional and international labour markets. Konsowa stressed that not only do we do have the luxury of producing scientific research, but that scientific research must also be applicable to creating a national economy based on knowledge, noting that the university in this regard has allocated approximately one billion pounds to modernize all research laboratories at the university to achieve this goal. At the end of his speech, Konsowa praised the organization and the large presence of young people from various youth and party entities, stressing the necessity of organizing such events on an ongoing basis to enhance awareness among Egyptian youth about various societal issues.
While Dr. Osama el-Azhari confirmed that the salon discusses a very important issue, which is the issue of determination in building awareness, pointing out that there are four goals that the Youth Visions Salon must achieve in its fourth edition, which are rejecting religious extremism and terrorism, confronting moral decline, building the character of the Egyptian person who created civilization, and building civilization through interest in all sciences and knowledge.
While Dr. Dina Helali thanked President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for his care for the youth and putting them in the front lines in leadership positions to form young leaders suitable for building the new republic. She added that she is interested in organizing the salon on an annual basis to be an opportunity to exchange ideas between various Egyptian youth from all governorates, and to increase awareness among them in all issues raised on both the local and international scenes.
Dr. Talaat Abdelqawi confirmed that the National Alliance for Civil and Development Work is a civil entity that aims to spread the culture of volunteering and achieve development, service and investment projects, pointing out that the coalition, since its establishment in March 2022, has succeeded in helping more than 30 million Egyptians from the most needy groups, providing food aid for 25 million citizens, medical assistance to more than 5 million citizens, and providing 40,000 jobs for people with disabilities and the most needy groups, in addition to paying debts of imprisoned women debtors to release them, and the launch of the “Izra’a” (Cultivate) initiative, which was praised by most international agricultural organizations.
While Dr. Youssef Amer spoke about the importance of work in the true Islamic faith, and that God created man to inhabit the earth, stressing the need for work to be coupled with science and knowledge, and for human beings to always be proficient in their work as God Almighty commanded them.
The salon activities included two dialogue sessions. The first dialogue session was titled “The Role of Youth in Building and Developing the Nation,” while the second dialogue session was titled “Cybersecurity, Economic Challenges, and Youth Opportunities in the New Republic.” The media dialogue was moderated by Mr. Mostafa Mizar, presenter of the 9 o’clock News on Egyptian Television.