Youth council holds 8th session in Rabat

The National Council of Youth and the Future (CNJA) is currently holding its 8th session in Rabat under the topic "globalization, rural development and youth employment."

The two-day session that started proceedings on Tuesday is debating means of defining new bases of rural development, taking into account globalization requirements, means of helping rural populations preserve their social cohesion, and ways of curbing exclusion and poverty and making of the rural world a performing economic space.

The session is also probing efforts needed to reduce the gaps between the urban and rural areas and to integrate the rural world in the country's development process.

The opening session was marked by the reading out of a royal message wherein King Mohammed VI stressed the need to address the issue of youth unemployment which, he said, does not only have an economic dimension but also social and cultural ones.

In addressing this issue, the sovereign said, it is necessary to take into account the economic and social needs and the changes affecting the society...and to involve in the related dialogue all economic and social partners.

The Moroccan society we are trying to build for the third millennium is an economically-developed one, marked by solidarity, tolerance and overture on the world at the civilizational level and able to keep pace with changes sweeping over the world and to take up the challenges, the sovereign said.

He added that the promotion of the rural world is a national priority and that despite the achievements in water harnessing, modernization of agricultural activities, raising the income of farmers, meeting a large part of food needs, improving agricultural products exports, and extending water supply, all the citizens living in rural areas have not benefited from this development.

The rural world actually still suffers from a deficit in infrastructure and social services and is widely affected by poverty and illiteracy, a deficit that might worsen in view of the incidence of globalization and that might threaten the stability, cohesion and development of our society.

King Mohammed VI stated further that the government has been instructed when drawing the five year development plan to place the promotion of the rural world on top of priorities and to integrate it in the development process of the country.

He stressed in this regard the need to grant due importance to human resources so that rural populations, and especially the youth and women, have access to know-how and be able to cope up with the changes entailed by development.

The sovereign also underlined the need of a rational exploitation of natural resources to preserve the interests of mounting generations.

The national council of youth and the future, set up in 1991, is a forum of dialogue and consultation entrusted with helping Moroccan youth take up future challenges and creating conditions for integrating youth in the country's economic and social-cultural fabric.

It musters cabinet members, representatives of economic partners, MPs, unionists and delegates of youth associations. The council holds at least two sessions a year.