The Y20 China 2016 Summit
The 7th edition of Y20 Summit was held in Beijing and Shanghai under Chinese Presidency from July 24th to 31st 2016. Despite have been discussing and sorting out strategies for the summit for the past 2-3 months online, the five of Indonesian delegation only met for the first time as a full team in Beijing International hotel on Monday morning of August the 25th. It was nice to finally put a face on each of the team’s name and getting to know each other a little bit better. The Y20 Summit agenda itself was also nicely arranged as it serves the first couple of days for cultural visits and ice breaking to allow the delegates from the G20 and guest countries as well as invited international organizations got acquainted with each other before the serious-fun parts begin.
Andreyka, Peter, Wafa, Fadhila, and Hanifah proudly wearing Batik for the Welcome Banquet of the Y20 Summit
The diplomatic week was commenced by a visit to the Forbidden City and The Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Called Gu Gong in Chinese, the former served as the imperial palace for the emperors throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. It acquires the famous name as it was forbidden to enter the facility without special permission from the emperor. Now the establishment houses historical and valuable artifacts as the Palace Museum. The huge complex coupled with the summery weather in Beijing on that day was a perfect combination for some sweaty historical introduction to the Chinese culture!
The Indonesian delegation in front of the Forbidden City
The Great Hall of the People
A bit later on the first day, the Y20 delegates was formally welcomed by the Mr. Li Yuanchao, the Vice President of the People’s Republic of China in the Great Hall of The People. The Head Delegate of Turkish, Chinese, and German delegation had the privilege to address the Vice President representing the Y20 delegates as the previous, current, and upcoming presidency of the G20 summit. Mr. Li gave a short overview on the recent Chinese economic development followed by the introduction to concerns of the Chinese Presidency for this year’s summit with an emphasize on innovative, invigorated, interconnected, and inclusive global economy. On the following day, Hanifah delivered a speech to address the Sherpa of People’s Republic of China as the head delegate of Indonesia together with Canadian and Australian head delegates.
Hanifah is giving a speech to address the Sherpa of People's Republic of China, representing the Y20 delegates
After spending two days in Beijing, the summit is continued to one of the busiest port cities in the World, Shanghai. The delegates took high-speed train that connects both megacities within five and a half hours. The Shanghai part of the summit was set about by a pleasant welcome banquet in the Crowne Plaza Shanghai Fudan Hotel. On the following day, the Y20 China 2016 was officially kicked off by an opening ceremony attended by all the delegates and invitees as well as the Vice president of All-China Youth Federation, Zhou Changkui, Vice chairman of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee, Xu Yibo, Chancellor of Fudan University, Wei Xiaopeng, and President of Fudan University, Xu Ningsheng.
Opening ceremony of the Y20 Summit 2016 in the Twin Tower of Fudan University
Andreyka, Wafa, and Fadhila during the roundtable session.
The Y20 roundtables then were in order, which were broken into three sessions carried out within two days. Each of the Indonesian delegates covered one of the topics of this year’s summit under the general theme of “Youth innovation for our shared vision”. Both having political science background, Andreyka was attending the “social justice and equal opportunities” while Hanifah went for the “partnership and global covernance”. Fadhila covered the “green life and sustainability” topic given her background in engineering and sustainable technology. Peter and Wafa who are adept at economics by academic and professional background attended the “entrepreneurship and creative thinking” and “poverty elimination and joint development” respectively.
The head delegates meeting to finalize the Y20 communique
The Indonesian delegation were glad to be able to promote the following gists, among others, on the final Y20 China communiqué:
policies aimed at ensuring land rights for the poor in rural & urban areas; involvement of local communities in food production,
e-commerce services & mobile payment systems, rendering marketplaces available to small & individual businesses,
practical programs that foster entrepreneurial, creative, & critical thinking from primary school onwards,
point of access for entrepreneurs providing info, contacts, and affordable assistance pertinent to business activities,
removing barriers & regulatory burdens for start-ups and entrepreneurs; protection of intellectual property rights,
equal access to education and jobs across gender and age for vulnerable and underrepresented groups,
ratification of Paris Agreement by the signatories; dedicated fund for sustainable development projects,
integration of sustainability in formal education curriculum; incentives to make cities cleaner and more sustainable,
forest protection; clean technology transfer to developing countries; sustainable supply chain mechanism,
big data for inclusive social policy; transparency and neutrality in public private partnerships.
The silver lining of the points accentuated by the Indonesian delegation is the importance of integrated education for shaping an inclusive, just, creative, entrepreneurial, and sustainable mindset on the young generation.
The final communiqué drafting finally reached a consensus after a tense 10-hours meeting of the Y20 head delegates and guest countries meeting. The Y20 communiqué was officially handed to the All China Youth Federation as the organizing committee to be presented on the G20 country leaders and Sherpa meetings on September 2016 in Hangzhou.
The Indonesian delegation to the Y20 China would like to thank the Indonesian Sherpa for G20, the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague The Netherlands, and last but not least the Indonesian Youth Diplomacy for both the resources and moral support, which made youth diplomacy in this year’s Y20 a successful endeavor. We are keen to follow up not only the outcomes from the G20 China Summit in the coming month, but also the implementation of youth-driven solutions on the national development strategies afterwards.
