On January 31, 2018, the hot Chinese singer Wang Yuan delivered a speech and appealed for quality education for youth worldwide at the 7th Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum held in New York.
As a Chinese youth representatives and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) youth education envoy, Wang, a member of the renowned boy band TFboys, focused on quality education.
In an interview with the United Nations, the 17-year-old artist expressed great honor in joining the forum where he heard different opinions and voices from experts, outstanding young people, and leaders all over the world. He claimed that being a special advocate for education by the UNICEF was both an honor and a duty and he would improve himself to show his energy and spread the initiative and ideas to more people.
Concerning the impression of visiting schools of social welfare, Wang felt the vigor of the students there and saw their joy after receiving quality education. This confirmed his determination to promote quality education.
Last year, he attended the 6th ECOSOC Youth Forum with five other Chinese youth representatives and gave a speech. His speech video went viral on Chinese video websites.
This year's forum focused on the role of youth in building sustainable and resilient urban and rural communities. Global youth representatives discussed how youth could help implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, talking about poverty eradication, youth employment and economic empowerment, gender equality, health and well-being, and climate change.
Amina J. Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, said in the opening ceremony that the 2030 Agenda was "shaped with youth" and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) couldn't be achieved unless the Agenda took root in rural areas.
The UN statistics revealed that the world's youth population approached 1.8 billion and young people have become the largest group.
However, 71 million unemployed people faced big challenges and 161 million young people were moderately to extremely poor. The employment rate for young women was 17% lower than that for men.
- Translated by Karen Luo
