Young people’s voices are being taken more and more seriously. Nazerke Aibar, a Kazakhstani student, who is doing her Master’s Degree at Peking University, said she was genuinely amazed by how Rashid Alimov,  SCO's Secretary General, values young people’s opinions. “He has attentively taken notes of key resolutions agreed upon by young people in the first Model SCO, which was held last weekend. This kind of personal attention to youth is just invaluable when you realize your opinions are being listened to.” 

Nazerke spoke as one of the young people who joined the “SCO Youth Talk,” the Point’s special program on CGTN. With the Qingdao summit around the corner, a group of young people from member countries gathered in the SCO Secretariat in Beijing to share their views. 

“People to people exchanges are important,” said Victoria Khu, a Russian student at Tsinghua University. 

Exchanges of young people among SCO countries are gaining momentum these days. This is mainly attributed to the robust people-to-people communication mechanism of the SCO, which was established 17 years ago to fight terrorism, and later evolved to broader cooperation and communication in trade and economy, education, and people-to-people exchanges, among others.  

After India and Pakistan joined the organization as full members, SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov said the SCO covers 44 percent of the world's population, with an obviously higher percentage of young people in the demographic makeup.  

“It’s important for us to take action and to take ownership of the Organization for the benefits of the SCO in its development in the future,” said Khu.

Odil Gafarov, also a student at the Yenching Academy under Peking University, said Rashid Alimov would bring young people’s voices to the SCO summit in Qingdao. “It’s the first time young people will have been heard,” Nazerke said. 

When it comes to concrete outcomes, Nishat Kazmi, a Yenching scholar at Peking University, said he hopes that the word “youth” will be included into the SCO Qingdao declaration, unlike in the Astana Declaration. 

The Point with Liu Xin is a 30-minute current affairs program on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 9:30 p.m. BJT (1330GMT), with rebroadcasts at 5:30 a.m. (2130GMT) and 10:30 a.m. (0230GMT).