On 30 March 2022, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming addressed the opening ceremony of the 9th SCO Model Youth Conference "Mission 2030 — The SCO Generation as the Key Driver in Digitising the Region." Held in Khujand, Republic of Tajikistan, the conference was sponsored by the SCO Friendship and Cooperation Centre in Tajikistan and the SCO Public Diplomacy Centre in Uzbekistan. In keeping with the scenario, the participants modelled the SCO Council of Heads of State (CHS) at work.
Noting that the SCO Model expands its geography and audience with each passing year, Zhang Ming emphasised that holding these events regularly helped younger generations to better understand political and diplomatic practices and the technique of multilateral negotiations on the most important topics. He added that this offered an insight into the SCO's socioeconomic, cultural and humanitarian projects and its activity as a whole.
The Secretary-General paid special attention to the fact that the SCO's youth agenda was becoming more and more important. Currently, in this connection, a wide range of programmes was being implemented on a permanent basis, programmes aimed at encouraging youth entrepreneurship, upgrading skills in the information technologies field, digital economy, and e-trade, and developing business incubators, startup projects, and remote training capability based on the SCO University's potential.
Zhang Ming reminded his audience that during the preparations for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in February and March of this year and in the process of the Games, the volunteers, students and young people, including those from the SCO countries, "made everyone a gift of an unforgettable and spectacular holiday, promoted the development of good-neighbourly relations, and actively helped to safeguard the sanitary and epidemiological conditions with the aim of counteracting the Covid-19 pandemic."
He expressed hope that representatives of youth organisations would take an active part in preparations for the next CHS meeting scheduled for September of this year in Samarkand. Thereby they would play an important role in strengthening friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation between the SCO member states.
