13TH STRAITS YOUTH DAY WRAPS IN FUZHOU WITH OVER 2,000 YOUNG LEADERS

_{The Straits Youth Heart-to-Heart Exchange on August 6} 

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- The 13th Straits Youth Day concluded its week-long main events on Aug 7, bringing together more than 2,000 young talents from both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in a bid to deepen cross-strait cultural and developmental ties.

The Youth Day staged its centralised activities, featuring 25 events, including the 13th Straits Youth Heart-to-Heart Exchange, the ninth Cross-Strait College Student Leadership Camp, and the fourth Taiwan Youth Talk at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Themed “Inheriting Chinese Culture and Honoring Family Ties”, the 13th Straits Youth Day plans to roll out 52 events throughout the year, and it is expected that over 3,000 Taiwan youth will be invited, according to a statement.

As the main event, the Straits Youth Heart-to-Heart Exchange was held in Fuzhou on Aug 6, at which the second batch of measures to build Fuzhou as a Straits Youth Development City was released.

In addition, the cooperation to build Straits Youth Development Cities was initiated, and the Declaration on Cooperation among Straits Youth Development Cities (Fuzhou Declaration) was read out by representatives from both sides of the strait.

Fuzhou has held 12 Straits Youth Festivals since 2013 to promote youth exchanges and integrated development, attracting at least 41,000 participants, and among them, more than 23,000 are Taiwan compatriots, and it was their first trip to the mainland for nearly half of them.

Beginning this year, the Straits Youth Festival has been upgraded to Straits Youth Day, pooling the wisdom of young people and injecting momentum into the integrated development of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

-- BERNAMA