Close to $ 1.2 billion (40,000 billion rials) will be allocated for youth marriage and employment in the current calendar year (started March 21), said Rouhollah Modabber, national planning consultant at the ministry of youth affairs and sports.
Iran’s youth comprise 23 million of the nearly 80 million population.
Matrimonial affairs of the young population are one of the major concerns of the government, he said, on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of the 2nd Caspian Neighbors Youth Conference in Chalus, Mazandaran Province. The slogan of the meet was “Caspian Sea, Sea of Peace and Sustainable Development.”
The ministry plans to ensure stability in young people’s lives by promoting pre-marital counseling and encouraging couples who have separated to patch up, he said, quoted by IRNA.
One of the schemes to help married youth is allocating loans up to $ 3000 (100 million rials) each (or 200 million rials for a couple) to purchase home appliances, said Modabber. It will come into effect soon.
An important achievement of the Caspian confab was that it highlighted transnational cultural exchanges, job creation and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth. Twenty young conferees were chosen as Iran’s cultural ambassadors, he said.
Joint Statement
The conference concluded with a joint statement by representatives from the five Caspian littoral states Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran, “voicing readiness for mutual cooperation and decision-making to execute joint projects aiming to secure peace and stability in the region.”
The 6-article statement also called for multilateral development and to strengthen bilateral ties among the youth organizations of the five nations “on the basis of friendship, brotherhood, and mutually beneficial collaboration,” reports the website for Sports and Youth Affairs Organization of Mazandaran Province, mazandaransport.ir.
Aligning efforts and decisions in policies of youth affairs in the Caspian region; supporting exchange of knowhow in areas of policy-making and implementation of successful youth projects; expanding the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of the Caspian littoral states and promoting multilateral relations among the five states; supporting the youth as messengers of peace and amity and holding regular joint cultural events and programs; and organizing youth assemblies to exchange ideas and strengthen amity as well as develop professional relations, were the other articles of the statement.
