Queen Rania Attends Second Annual YAL Forum

(Jordan Times, Petra - Dead Sea) Participants in the second Young Arab Leaders (YAL) forum concluded their two-day meeting on Monday by issuing recommendations on development of the youth sector and empowering young Arabs to assume leadership positions in their communities.

They also agreed on accelerating plans to build educational programmes, jointly with specialised institutions, to train and produce, on a scientific basis, a generation of young Arab leaders.

The forum will hold its next meeting in Lebanon in November 2007. Till then, the participants agreed, an awareness campaign directed at Arab youth will be conducted to encourage them to take the initiative and become innovative. The awareness programme should be institutionalised to facilitate transfer of expertise from one generation to another, YAL members agreed, pledging to finance groundbreaking projects designed by young Arabs.

They also expressed their intention to involve more women in the activities of the organisation, which has chapters in 15 Arab countries.

Discussions at the forum focused on enhancing and developing the effectiveness of young Arab leaders to identify and address critical issues confronting the Arab world, especially those relating to education, leadership and economic development.

YAL Chairman Saeed Al Muntafiq said the organisation will offer 1,000 scholarships to Arab students in the fields of IT and technology, in cooperation with universities in member countries.

His Majesty King Abdullah, who is a member of the organisation’s board, on Sunday inaugurated the meeting, voicing his support for the organisation in its efforts to build better ties with its peers across the world

“One of the most important activities undertaken by the organisation is building bridges of trust among young Arab leaders and their counterparts in Asia, Europe and America,” the Monarch said in his opening remarks.

YAL sees itself as “a network of Arab men and women who have seen the power of action in their own lives, reached unprecedented levels of success for their age, are positive and can see beyond today’s difficulties to that vision of a prosperous Arab future.”

Jordan Times, Tuesday, November 28, 2006