10/08/1998

It is a great pleasure and also an honour for Malta to address this World Conference of Ministers responsible for Youth.

On behalf of the Maltese delegation I thank the Portuguese Government for the excellent hospitality offered to us all. I am sure that the outcome and conclusions of this meeting would lead us to ameliorate the well-being of the young generation throughout the world.

The United Nations, in recognising the emerging role of young individuals, spurred its member states into an increased attention towards youths, and their contribution towards our society's development. it focused its efforts on new programmes and policies to elevate the status of young people in all spheres of life through appropriate government action as well as additional input from the various existing youths' NGOs.

Today we arc living in a world which is changing continuously and young people have to search for a clear identity, strive for a stable and democratic present and aggregate their efforts to move towards a prosperous future.

Young people both as individuals or as part of an organisation, are playing a primary role in the process towards global integration. Worldwide, they aspire to be cornerstones in shaping the fast evolving global village; the latter being free from intolerance, racism, and all kinds of discrimination.

Youth is a transitional period where a person has to make choices that in most cases would shape the future of his or her life. The extent and quality of openings that we as governments offer in conjunction with other related agencies will determine not only the success of the present youth population but will provide a firm foundation for all future societies.

Governments should be committed to offer to the younger generation their full support so that youth mobility is in no way restricted or limited to a minority. Promotion of youth mobility through youth exchanges is an effective way to enable young persons to experience diverse cultural, linguistic and religious traditions worldwide. Achieving greater youth mobility not only paves the way to new opportunities for these young people, but collaterally we would be ensuring a future characterised by mutual cooperation between different countries and cultures with less space to such phenomena as xenophobia..

It is absolutely no longer possible to address problems related to young people as if they were a homogenous group with common expectations. Youths around the globe approach life from different points of view, since they experience different realities in their socio-economic and cultural environment. It is this mixture of different environment that each of these people experience that could turn out to be the key to a successful future cooperation between the world nations complimenting the drive towards a better future for those who most need it.

Inter governmental cooperation in the field of youth, should be a priority on all governments' agendas. More than just mere sharing experiences we should identify emerging trends that pose a threat to the healthy psychological and physical development of young people, and tackle forces that limit their presence and effective participation within the emerging societies.

We should seek to establish common grounds to set up measures not just to alleviate part of the stress that accompanies the uncertainties that young people face in a continuous changing world, but to provide for them a healthy and prospective environment based on democratic principles.

Youth in the new millennium will be experiencing a world in which the law of the survival of the fittest may tend to prevail. All of us should be thus committed to assist our young generation in the future that will be marked by more cultural, economic social and political upheavals. For the younger generation to cope successfully with this they need to be acquainted with new technologies, an improved level of education even from their tender stages of life, and a mere understanding of social and cultural developments.

The Government of Malta is fully aware of the aspirations and rights of young people today. It promotes a spirit of enterprise and academic attainment, provides the necessary infrastructure for constant flow of development and encourages through financial assistance, youth mobility.

The Maltese government is currently involved in a continuous dialogue with local NGOs in order to update the current National Youth Policy which seeks to set out the objectives to be achieved for youth, and to shape the necessary guidelines for these objectives to be achieved.

The Maltese government has long been committed to offer free education to all young Maltese citizens. This education policy is updated regularly in order to reflect the contemporary priorities of this new fast moving world. The Maltese government is engaged in a continues struggle to ensure that the high level of education, based on the development of information technology, is in no way limited to a few people, thus leaving the rest lagging behind. Malta goes a step beyond in this regard and offers also financial subsistence grants to all students to ensure that post secondary and tertiary education are within everyone's reach.

Apart from all this, the Government of Malta also offers opportunities for more education to young people in all technical areas and specialised traning, while it also assists youths that aspire to further their studies abroad, in foreign universities and colleges.

The Government of Malta adopts policies to assist young people to find and own decent housing, to seek profitable employment to have access to all necessary data and means, and to further their healthy well-being. It also assists young people with special needs, emarginated youth, and youth at risk to overcome their difficulties and recover their self-esteem.

It is also the policy of the Government of Malta, as outlined in its National Youth Policy to integrate youth in the mainstream of the political, social and economic life of the country, recognising them as a vital element of the future of the nation. It is also the aim of the Government to develop among youths a sense of intergenerational solidarity, cooperation among themselves and a commitment to those with special needs, while instilling a spirit of self-confidence and a belief in their ability to realise their potential in society. In Malta the state is deeply committed to raise awareness amongst youths with regards to the vitality of healthy living and environmental conservation

The Government of Malta although already very active in the scenario of European and Mediterranean youth life, is also ready to assume all its future responsibilities in Mediterranean, European and World cooperation, in order to ameliorate the position of young people in the various societies. Malta has always been very involved in promoting more stability, peace and cooperation in the Mediterranean region and in fact Malta hosted with success World, European and Mediterranean conferences. Malta is well known as a hub of dialogue within the Mediterranean. Apart from hosting the first Euro-Arab Youth conference in 1994 and the Euro-Mod Conference held last year, the Government of Malta in collaboration with the National Youth Council of Malta, organised in May of this year~ an important meeting for the establishment of the Mediterranean Youth Forum, bringing to Malta various European and Mediterranean countries. This confirms Malta's aspirations as a cultural and political centre of the Mediterranean; a centre where diverging views and policies may be freely discussed and analyses. Presently Malta enjoys the best ever relationship with the European Union, and whilst striving to consolidate this affinity, our country is collaterally committed to strengthen further, through mutual cooperation, its relationship with all countries in the African, Asian, American and Australian continents. These policies pursued by the Government of Malta should ensure the development of a solid base from which young people can launch their vision, filled with aspirations for a better world in the coming future.