The Crown Prince and Crown Princess in Mexico

In a video clip published prior to the meeting, the Crown Prince said: “There are definitely a couple of issues I would like to see addressed during this meeting. One is youth. In Mexico for instance more than 50 per cent of the population is under 27. So this tremendous resource, we should discuss how to best use it.”

Click on the link to the right to see the video.

Putting youth to work

Tuesday’s session addressed a number of aspects of youth employment, including youth’s disenchantment and their aspirations to better lives, how to foster entrepreneurship, and how to promote better, closer cooperation between government, schools and the business community.

Crown Prince Haakon opened the debate and took part in the session alongside Secretary of Education of Mexico City, Mario Martin Delgado Carrillo; Chairman of the Board of Endeavor Argentina, Andy Freire; Chilean artist and entrepreneur Francisca Valenzuela and businessman and philanthropist José Galicot Behar. The session was moderated by Susan L. Segal of Council of the Americas.

Young people and other vulnerable groups are particularly hard hit in difficult financial times. In Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay unemployed young people account for almost 60 per cent of the unemployed, while in Paraguay this figure is up to 70 per cent.

Focus on youth

Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit are deeply involved in activities focusing on youth and young leaders. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess’ Fund awards grants to projects that focus on young people in a vulnerable phase of life, and that motivate young people to make use of all the opportunities open to them and to fulfil their potential.

In January the Crown Prince and Crown Princess hosted a gathering of some 60 young leaders at their residence, Skaugum Estate in Asker, to discuss leadership and wisdom.

Crown Prince is Co-chair

On Saturday, 14 April, two days before the opening of the World Economic Forum regional meeting, the Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL) for leaders under the age of 40 came together for their Annual Summit. Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been a Young Global Leader since 2010, and attended a number of discussions and meetings through Monday, 16 April.

As co-chair, Crown Prince Haakon has taken on a more central role in the meeting in Mexico than in previous events under the World Economic Forum. On this final day of the meeting, the Crown Prince will take part in the session entitled “The Next Generation of Latin American Leadership”.

The Crown Prince will also attend a Dignity Day event at the American School of Puerto Vallarta during his stay in Mexico.

Major global meetings

The World Economic Forum’s regional meeting for Latin America brings together 900 leaders from some 70 countries representing government, industry, civil society and academia.

The impressive economic progress experienced in Latin America in recent years forms the backdrop of this meeting. The region will be hosting other events with a global impact this year: Mexico will chair the G-20 and the Rio+20 Conference on sustainable development will take place in Brazil.