Press Release & Secretary-General United Nations Department of Public Information • News and Media Services Division • New York SG/SM/7892 16 July 2001 TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN AT INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION, GENEVA, 16 JULY 2001 For information media • not an official record • also available at http://www.un.org/News Press Release SG/SM/7892 16 July 2001 The SECRETARY-GENERAL: Ladies and gentlemen, let me thank all of you for coming this afternoon. Juan [Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO)], thank you for the introduction and let me also thank you for hosting this network here at the ILO. In addition to our friends from the media, let me also welcome and thank the representatives of youth organizations and members of the High-Level Panel of the Youth Employment Network who are here with us this afternoon. Let me give you a word of background. Last year, together with the heads of the World Bank and the International Labour Organization, I convened a High-Level Policy Network on Youth Employment — drawing on the most creative leaders in private industry, civil society and economic policy. The aim was to explore imaginative approaches in creating opportunities for youth. The Network was one of the key initiatives in my Millennium Report, which was prepared for the Millennium Summit and intended to help shape the agenda for the United Nations in the twenty-first century. Why focus on youth employment? The facts and figures should speak for themselves. Youth make up more than 40 per cent of the world's total unemployed. There are an estimated 66 million unemployed young people in the world today -- an increase of nearly 10 million since 1965. Of course, under-employment is also another growing concern. The majority of new jobs are low paid and insecure. Increasingly, young people are turning to the informal sector for their livelihood, with little or no job protection, benefits, or prospects for the future. Being unemployed early in life takes a heavy and enduring toll on the individual. It can damage prospects for employment later in life, leading to a circle of despair, poverty and social instability. And thereby, it leads to a destructive circle for all society. We cannot afford to let this vicious circle continue any longer. Youth is our most valuable asset -- they are the leaders of the future, they are the future. That is why I am thrilled that we have been able to assemble such a group of creative and innovative people in our High-Level Panel. They are working on proposals that cover the full range of the challenge of youth employment: from sound macroeconomic policies to opportunities for young women, including education for girls as well as boys -- but I would want to stress education for girls. Some of you may recall that last year we had a special conference in Dakar, "Educate Girls Now", and that initiative is still very much in force — from the need of public-private partnerships to the need to harness the potential of information technology; and the need to create enabling environments for young people working in the informal economy, to encouraging young entrepreneurs -- both women and men — and helping them gain access to capital. And I think most of you have also read about Hernando de Soto's work, "The Other Path", and his determination to help the poor in the informal sector, give them access to capital and enable them to use assets and collateral. (more) Press Release SG/SM/7892 16 July 2001 These recommendations, once finalized, will be presented to the Member States of the United Nations. But this initiative will go far beyond governments. The Network will form a growing web of partnerships to generate jobs and opportunities for youth. This afternoon at our meeting, we decided that the panel will be a standing group to keep advising me and the partners -- that is, Juan Somavia and Jim Wolfensohn — on the way ahead. They would also serve as advocates for youth employment and get governments to take this issue very seriously. So I started with three partners and now we are 15. I will take your questions. MARIE OKABE, SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: We will start with questions on the Youth Employment Initiative. Only when we exhaust those questions will we expand it to other subjects. QUESTION: On behalf of the press that is more or less scattered here in this audience, Mr. Secretary-General, on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association, our hearty congratulations on your re-election for another term. I will actually ask a more general question if I may be allowed to do that and leave the questions on the Youth Forurn — on which I am not a great expert and which is all fairly new as you outlined. The SECRETARY-GENERAL: May I make a suggestion to you? I think Marie had a very good suggestion. Why don't we focus on the Youth Employment Initiative and when we move on to the more general questions, we will come back to you and give you the first question. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary-General, my question is addressed to you and also to Mr. Somavia. In your very glossy brochure, you have some startling data on youth unemployment, but there seems to be no data on China, the world's most populous country and, according to ILO officials, they have no data on China for the last 10 years. So there is a big gap there. The SECRETARY-GENERAL: Juan will take that question. MR. SOMAVIA: I think that you are right. It's a gap that we believe that in the context of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed with China, we will be able to deepen the knowledge of that situation there. QUESTION: I have a follow-up question. What are your rough estimates? What do you think are the number of unemployed in China? We have heard from the United States government officials a figure of 100 million — is that a conservative estimate? MR. SOMAVIA: Let me tell you the situation as we have been able to appraise it. Because of the move to the market, there is obviously a strong change from State enterprises to market-based industries. The first move towards reducing employment in State enterprises resulted in 20 million laid-off workers, and these moves are going to continue into the future. I think it would be hazardous to give you an off-the-cuff idea, but that is a very concrete figure -- it is a figure with which the Government of China is working. Out of those, around 14 million have been able to find another job, 6 million have not. If that process continues, it is clear that there is going to be an unemployment issue and a social security and social protection issue present there. (more) - 3 - Press Release SG/SM/7892 16 July 2001 QUESTION: My question is, what youth organizations are collaborating with the Youth Employment Network? And if one is not part of an organization, how can one be involved in the decision-making process and implementation of action plans? The SECRETARY-GENERAL: Let me make a comment on that and then pass it on to Juan. Let me stress that this is not an initiative that is going to be limited to international organizations. It is an initiative that should embrace governments. We cannot do this without governments, without civil society, without the private sector, and, indeed, foundations. So at the national level, we would expect governments to come up with strategies for youth employment. And in building up that strategy, I would expect them to consult the youth, women's groups, civil society, others, and employers, of course, and then come up with a strategy for ensuring that the youth are looked after and that there will be decent jobs for them as they move from universities, or for those who are not given skills to be able to cope with their daily lives. But I think that Juan may want to mention those who are participating here today. MR. SOMAVIA: Yes, we thought that it was important, together with the Youth Employment Network, to consult with a group of heads of youth organizations. So we had that consultation in the course of Friday and Saturday, out of which there was a meeting this morning between the youth group and the Youth Employment Network. They are definitely going to be part of the process in wnich we are involved. So the linkage with youth organizations is there from the beginning. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary-General, will your new Network and growing web give attention to troubled spots in the world like Palestine, where you have growing and alarming signals of unemployment and growing poverty, and the youth are very affected in that region of the world? The SECRETARY-GENERAL: It is a global effort and it will include all countries, including areas in conflict. Obviously, the areas in conflict have special difficulties and we have to tackle them specifically and take specific measures to help them. But that is a different topic. So yes, it will cover them. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary-General, I know that Africa is one of your main priorities, and we can understand why. I am not going to come back on all of the recent proposals that you made for the promotion and for the improvement of the economy in that continent. But please could you tell us about some important guidelines which have been discussed or decided here during this meeting, or which you are hoping to get from this meeting, which could lead African youngsters towards reinforcing the African private sector -- the weak African private sector unfortunately -- to take over from those who did not succeed in the past and to help promoting what the African Union has called the African Initiative.