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K. Matsuda: Address to World Summit 2020
Written by Koji Matsuda, Vice President, International Association of Youth and Students for Peace
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Address to World Summit 2020, Seoul, Korea, February 3-8, 2020
Greetings!
I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to all our honored guests and the youth leaders from around the world who have come here to join us in this IAYSP Forum today. Thank you.
If you are wondering what IAYSP is, it stands for International Association of Youth and Students for Peace. We used to conduct activities by the name Youth and Students for Peace (YSP) but starting this year with the vision of becoming global, we have decided to place the words International Association in the front of our original name.
At this first forum under our new name of IAYSP, we plan to build a network to connect the youth and student leaders who wish to contribute to peace as well as deepen our ties with government officials and NGO leaders to work together to solve world problems. In addition, we are thinking of moving forward with the activities that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations has established as the Year 2030 goal.
Today, we have many youth leaders who have gathered here. There is such deep meaning in having so many youth leaders from around the globe gather for discussions like this.
Looking at the history of any nation, there has always been a big transformation whenever the young people would stand up and make a change through their activities and movements. I believe that with the cooperation of everyone here today, in going forward to the realization of a peaceful society, we would be able to solve the problems occurring in the world, and the activities of youth and students in leading us to world peace will unfold.
Today, a total of seven panelists will give us a speech. The theme of the speech is “The Role of Youth in Realization of World Peace and Unification in the Korean Peninsula through Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity and Universally Shared Values.” Our founders, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and President Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, have for many years spoken of how a peaceful world is a society of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values.
What must we do to go forward to this kind of society? We will be introduced to the specific details of activities by the guest speakers and the youth leaders of IAYSP who will be giving speeches today.
I would also like to add that through this forum, we will present our declaration and build a network for the international youth leaders by building the International Association of Youth Leaders for Peace. And tomorrow during the general meeting, we plan to present this to the founder, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon.
What should I be doing to realize world peace? What should I do to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals? Please keep these questions in mind and think about them carefully as you listen to the speeches and discussions here today.
I hope that this forum can become the spark to initiate youth leader forums worldwide and promote the projects and activities for problem solving around the world.
Let all of us participating here today become the main characters who will expand the partnerships of the worldwide youth leaders and lead youth and students for the realization of a peaceful world.
I hope this time here was meaningful to every one of you Thank you very much.
To go back to the IAYSP Assembly Schedule page, click here.
To go to the World Summit 2020 Schedule page, click here.