As part of the implementation of the provisions of the final Declaration of the VI BRICS Youth Summit dated December 1, 2020, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, together with the Project Office for International Youth Cooperation in the Russia-BRICS direction, hosted the International Youth Camp of the BRICS countries in August 2021.
The Camp consisted of three shifts:
International Business Accelerator of BRICS countries (August 1-6, 2021);
BRICS Laboratory of Creative Industries (August 8-13, 2021);
BRICS Volunteer Camp (August 15-20, 2021).
The purpose of the Camp is to promote the further development of practice-oriented cooperation between youth leaders and organizations of the BRICS countries.
The BRICS Youth Camp took place in the Russky Bereg Eco-Park in the Ulyanovsk Region, where participants and experts from Brazil, Russia, India, China and India developed business models for the development of youth entrepreneurship at the international level. A distinctive feature of the camp was a practice-oriented model of work, which made it possible to attract young entrepreneurs who are already successfully implementing their projects in the BRICS space to the dialogue.
Delegates were nominated by IYES Foundation to participate in all the shifts of the Camp. At the opening, Akil Mohammad, Founder and chairperson of the International Public Organization "International Youth Edu-Skills Foundation" (IYESF) and President of the Association of Asian Students of RUDN University took part as a speaker, where he spoke about the importance of cooperation between participants from the BRICS countries for further development in various sectors, including youth policy. He presented a project “Discover Russia” aimed at promoting Tourism from India to Russia during the first session of the camp.
During the closing ceremony of the Forum Akil Mohammad joined online and spoke about the results of the first shift of the camp and the resolution adopted to improve business among BRICS countries.
For six days, delegates got acquainted with ongoing projects, participated in educational sessions and shared their experience of working in the countries of the five. The result of the intensive was the development of three projects designed to promote the development of both existing businesses and youth startups.
Eduard Omarov, Vice President of OPORA RUSSIA:
«Many of the start-up entrepreneurs do not know exactly whether it will work or not. They start by experience due to the fact that they do not know how to understand correctly, they make many mistakes. Therefore, we, unfortunately, have a 5% survival rate in business. Out of 100 people who started doing business, 5 survive. Our task is to make such false starts as few as possible. »
Young entrepreneurs who took part in the work of the first shift of the camp conducted a detailed analysis of youth entrepreneurship development programs and evaluated their effectiveness. One of the proposals supported by all countries was the holding of the second BRICS Business Accelerator, the first one took place in 2020. The main goal of the Business Accelerator is to promote the establishment of direct contacts between young representatives of the business circles of the BRICS countries in order to further develop youth entrepreneurship and innovation.
Together with the OPORA RUSSIA organization, it was decided to establish the international award "BRICS TOP-100 Young Entrepreneurs", which will not only be a "showcase" of achievements, but will also form a base of projects that actively develop business cooperation between our countries.
The urgent need to create additional business support tools was also repeatedly voiced by young businessmen. Large infrastructure projects, such as the BRICS Smart City Park in the Ulyanovsk region, which is scheduled to start construction in 2022, need targeted financing, to attract which it was proposed to create a BRICS Direct Investment Fund - a platform for meetings between investors and entrepreneurs. As conceived by the authors of the proposal, the Fund will provide financial support to public-private and commercial projects aimed at improving the quality of life, developing green energy, projects in the field of ecology and innovative developments.
Tatiana Seliverstova, Deputy Head of the Department of Youth Projects and Programs of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs said:
«We think that investors from the five countries will take an active part in the construction of a new BRICS park city. I note that the design layout of the new city will be developed by the participants of the second session of the BRICS camp. This is the very practice-oriented cooperation that we are trying to expand as much as possible with the leaders of the countries of the association. »
Completing the first stage of the camp, young businessmen pass on the agenda to the creative shift, at which architects, designers and urbanists will start creating the concept of the BRICS Smart City-Park - a new model of living space that meets the needs of young people for education, creativity, leisure and employment.
The first BRICS Youth Camp is held with the expert and informational support of the National BRICS Research Committee. Valeria Gorbacheva, Director for Relations with State and Public Organizations of the NKI BRICS, took part in the first session of the camp:
«Today it is no longer enough just to discuss the problems and opportunities for interaction within the BRICS framework. We must act decisively and offer a practical solution to the problems facing us. BRICS is already an established factor in international relations. Over the 15 years of dialogue development, we have managed to test many communication channels and create a multi-level inter-industry strategic partnership within the BRICS framework. The moment has come to move this machine into the future, to keep pace with innovations and global trends. Therefore, the creation of an absolutely unprecedented project of the BRICS park city on the basis of the Russkiy Bereg ECO-Park can be safely considered a kind of starting point in this new big journey. I hope this place of power will become a permanent venue for not only the BRICS Youth Camp, but will turn into a center of attraction for young energy and ambitions that will only move the BRICS flywheel forward. All possibilities have been created for this. »
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