IMF’s Shafik (third from left) with Youth Dialogue participants during 2011 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C. (IMF photo)
IMF YOUTH DIALOGUE
Two winners of the contest will participate in a "Youth Dialogue" panel discussion with IMF Deputy Managing Director Nemat Shafik and other youth/student representatives from the region during the October 2012 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Tokyo. The Youth Dialogue will be broadcast by a local TV station. The winners will also be able to participate in the 2013 Spring Meetings in Washington DC of the IMF and World Bank.
“Young people have been innocent bystanders in the global financial crisis,” said Shafik, “but the decisions being made today will determine their job prospects, the debts they will have to repay, and the economic environment for much of their adult lives.
“That is why the IMF wants to hear the views of young people on the global economy and how it should evolve to insure they have a brighter future.”
The competition, organized by the IMF and the Japanese Ministry of Finance, along with the Bank of Japan, is open to students who hold Japanese nationality. Essays on the theme “Youth Perspectives on the Global Economy and the Role of the IMF” must be written in English. The deadline for entry is Friday, August 3.
Around 6–8 finalists will be selected from the entries from whom two winners will be chosen. Their essays will be posted on the websites of the IMF, the IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Japan.
More than 14,000 people are expected to attend the Tokyo Meetings, which will take place October 12–14. That week, the IMF also releases its forecasts and analysis for the global economy and will host a series of seminars.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Japan’s membership of the IMF. It last hosted the Annual Meetings—which bring together finance ministers, central bank governors, senior officials, think tanks, and private sector representatives from around the world—in 1964.
