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Junior 8 meets world leaders in L'Aquila

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-10 01:37

L'AQUILA, Italy: Representatives of the youngsters in the Junior 8 group met here on Thursday leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries and five major developing countries to submit their proposals on global issues.

The Junior 8 (J8) summit, which attracts 54 youngsters aged 14-17 from the G8 and five major developing countries plus Egypt, has taken place in Rome on July 6-10 on children's rights, climate change and development in Africa.    

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They came to L'Aquila, where the G8 summit and outreach meetings with the five major developing countries are being held on July 8-10, to submit their proposals concerning the issues on the summit's agenda.

Followed by the meeting, the youngsters visit an exhibition on the earthquake.

The G8 countries groups Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia,  while the five major developing countries are China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Egypt is a special guest invited by host Italy.

China sent four middle school students, who are Li Mengyuan, Liang Xiaotian, Zhang Ying and Fang Zhiqian.

Li and Liang are from Beijing, Zhang of Dong ethnic minority from Guizhou Province and Fang, a left-behind child of migrant workers, from Henan Province.    

Only Li came to L'Aquila as each delegation should select merely one representative to meet the world leaders.  

The event is being organized with the cooperation of UNICEF, the Italian Prime Minister's Office, the Interior Ministry, the Education Ministry, the Youth Ministry and the Rome Municipal Authority.

The UNICEF began to organize such an event in 2005 in parallel with the G8 summit, aiming at enhancing the participation of young people in dealing with issues of international importance.