Bahrain supports youth representation, issues

Lusaka, Mar. 22 (BNA): Shura Council member Jamal Fakhro headed the Kingdom of Bahrain's parliamentary delegation participating in the 134th International Parliamentary Union (IPU) Conference in Lusaka, Zambia. He reaffirmed Bahrain's supporting the prevalent tendency in the international community to give youth more opportunity for youth representation and expression of their concerns and issues. He added the legislature supports all efforts being exerted by international parliamentarians to ensure more involvement of youth in the political process and to express their opinion absolutely freely and consolidation of all monitoring and legislative instruments available to achieve the desired goal. He said that the kingdom has given due attention to the category of young citizens as the basic building block of the kingdom's ongoing national development. He added that decision-makers in the kingdom realize the importance of youth element in pushing the wheel of national development and surmounting the challenges of our present day world and to effectively partake in the management of their country's affairs, hence the age for a citizen to be eligible to vote or get elected was reduced from 21 to 20 years and there is a possibility to reduce this age even further. Also, the Ministry of Youth and Sport has been created to assume its role in addressing youth concerns and issues. He said the legislature has striven to keep pace with youth concerns through the formation of youth- and sports-relevant committee in the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives. The two panels assume the studying of youth-related matters, including more engagement of youth in all fields. The legislative authority has always been keen on inclusion of youth development projects in the Government Action Plan (GAP2015-2018) and the State's Public Budget (2015-2016) to boost the community role of youth and to achieve their aspirations and ambitions. Also, the legislature has opened channels for social communication with Bahraini youth and boosted their engagement in coming up with ideas and crystallization of proposals which will serve their basic issues. The Bahraini parliamentary delegation headed by Shura Council first deputy chairman Jamal Fakhro includes MPs Dr. Saeed Al Yamani, Mohammed Al Jowder, and Abdullah bin Khalaf Al Dossary the Secretary-General of the Council of Representatives.