Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the opening of the 10th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Yerevan. At the official opening of the conference, the Prime Minister of Armenia, the National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Tulia Ackson, and Secretary-General Martin Chungong made speeches.

The Prime Minister welcomed the holding of the conference in the Republic of Armenia and wished the participants successful work. According to Nikol Pashinyan, there is a conceptual issue that he wants to share, because the entry of young people into politics is important and understandable. The Prime Minister noted that he has a certain conceptual issue with the phrase "young parliamentarian", because in his understanding, a parliamentarian is a parliamentarian, whether he is young, middle-aged or senior, he has one mandate and the same authority as the seniority. "As we are speaking about young people’s engagement in politics, I do recall back in the day the advice of a very respected friend of mine. When I started to practice journalism, subsequently also politics, the advice was “never allow anyone to call you a young journalist”. Because when the public fixes that you are a young journalist, even if you are 60, everyone will recall you as that young journalist. And in this sense, I believe there is much meaning in that piece of advice. And it’s important to note that the entry of young people into politics should importantly be safeguarded. But once someone is in the parliament, at least metaphorically they stopped to be young, and that an indication of a certain level of political maturity. I do highlight the importance of this consideration", said the Prime Minister, adding that, of course, experience is very important in everything, especially in politics, but today, especially in the age of technology, there is knowledge and skills that fortunately or unfortunately, everyone should evaluate individually, there is knowledge that is more accessible to the younger generation than the older generation and this is an objective reality.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, the old saying has not lost its relevance and probably will not lose its relevance, according to which "if youth knew, if age could".

"And I think  one of the main challenges here is that convergence of wisdom and capacity is one of the questions that the conference could address. Education is discussed, it’s one of the key topics of the conference, and I could speak about our experience or our conclusions, takeaways, the conclusions reached by the Armenian Government or our political team, and more broadly, we  try to promote this idea in the Republic of Armenia. There is no problem the solution to which skips education, there is no such problem. And vice versa, there is no problem the origin of which is not linked with the lack or gaps of education or low quality of education. We are discussing poverty, which is a global challenge, it’s a challenge in the Republic of Armenia as well, we have been criticized much for this, but my belief is that one of the key determinants of poverty, the cause of poverty is hidden in education", Nikol Pashinyan said.

According to the Head of the Government, one of the key causes of poverty is hidden in education, because the education systems that exist for objective and subjective reasons do not equip schoolchildren and later students with sufficient skills to be competitive in life. And if we try to translate what poverty is, it basically means having a lack of knowledge, skills, abilities necessary to be competitive in life, unless related to health and mobility problems. "And in this regard, for our government education is a priority. It is so for addressing the issues of employment. We could say the same about employment. What is unemployment after all? Unemployment is not having the required skills, knowledge and capabilities for being competitive in the labor market. But there is another problem, which is that knowledge and skills can be outdated," said the Prime Minister, adding that in recent centuries and throughout the history of humanity, there have been professions that have completely disappeared, and new professions have appeared.

And, according to Nikol Pashinyan, one of the biggest challanges of the education sector is to ensure the transformation or adaptation of people to these global changes, including in the labor market. And in that regard, according to the Prime Minister, addressing these problems is one of the priority agendas of the Armenian Government, that is the reason why 3 flagship programs are being implemented in the Republic of Armenia, one of which is the program to build, rebuild, and fundamnetally repair 300 schools, and the second one is to build, rebuild or fundamentally repair 500 kindergartens. The third is the Academic City program, which deals with higher education, science and research.

"Broadly, our perception is that education is a life long process and one must start to learn from preschool, from kindergarten and must continue their education, including on the job. I usually share this thought publicly by saying that if the work of everyone, member of parliament, minister or prime minister, is not accompanied with education and self-education, because education is also gaining information, processing information, and drawing conclusions from that information. It's that skill and the process makes obvious that education is a daily affair, a daily task for each one of us. Each of us must everyday dedicate some time for our own education, no matter whether one attends an educational institution", the Prime Minister said.

Nikol Pashinyan expressed hope that the attendees will return from this conference charged with new energy to serve the stability and development of their countries. According to the Prime Minister, this is the platform that shows that global stability, global peace and global development are part of everyone's agenda, and it is the interest in that agenda that unites and consolidates everyone here on different platforms.

United Kingdom House of Commons MP Dan Carden, who is the president of the Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union of Young Parliamentarians, addressed the participants of the conference in a video message. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan will make a speech at the closing ceremony of the event.

The conference will be held in Yerevan on September 12-14. The conference is a unique platform for young parliamentarians from all over the world to meet, discuss issues of concern to the youth, exchange experiences and promote advancement.

The primary focus of the 10th Global Conference is youth education and employment in the context of global crises, seeking solutions to ensure access to continuing education and create job opportunities.

During the conference, the young parliamentarians will have a discussion on the theme "Avoiding lost generations. preserving education and employment in all circumstances".

 The Inter-Parliamentary Union has 180 member countries. The event includes representatives from international organizations, diplomatic corps, and civil society.