Building skills for Fourth Industrial Revolution, innovation and youth entrepreneurship focus of OSCE-supported discussion in Tirana

TIRANA, 9 November 2018 – A two-day connectivity meeting on innovation and youth entrepreneurship hosted by the OSCE Secretariat focusing on “Building the skills needed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution” concludes today in Tirana. The meeting is part of The Young Developers and Entrepreneurs to Advance Start-ups (YDEAS) project in the Western Balkans and is supported by the Italian 2018 OSCE Chairmanship, the Central European Initiative and the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The discussion gathered some 100 participants, students and young innovators coming from the entire Western Balkans region, representatives of universities, investors, start-uppers, hubs as well as regional and international organizations.

“Supporting human capital development to address the challenges of digitalization is a priority of the Italian OSCE Chairmanship,” said Raffaella Campanati, First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Tirana.  “Fostering the huge potential of young people in the Western Balkans is a long-term investment for the future of the whole region.”

Discussions focused on fostering university co-operation for the future of the job market, preparing students to be problem solvers, to know how to find and use information, and how to create new tools to solve problems.

Mayor of Tirana Erion Velija said that local authorities have a key role to play in creating an ecosystem where young people can act as drivers of positive change. “There is a need to foster co-operation at the municipal level and in the region to make this happen.”

By granting eighteen scholarships in one of the most innovative hubs in Europe - the European Innovation Academy (EIA) - the project offered young people from the Western Balkans the opportunity to boost entrepreneurial and innovation-intensive skills necessary to foster economic growth in the region.

Teresa Albano, Economic Affairs Officer in the Office of Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities said: “The YDEAS project is about building the skills needed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is about supporting the creation of a regional community of young innovators that can boost efforts towards sustainable development as well as reconciliation”. 

Venturing out of the comfort zone, the importance of being bold, innovative and creative was also discussed.

Djuro Blanusa, Secretary General of the Regional Youth Co-operation Office (RYCO), Gazmend Turdiu, Deputy Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Anna-Katharina Deininger, OSCE Special Representative on Youth and Security and Sandra Metsis, Project Co-ordinator of the European Innovation Academy discussed how to possibly leverage the potential of this project for the benefit of the region.

The eighteen YDEAS’ awardees were conferred the symbolic title of Ambassadors of Innovation with the aim to act as catalysts of prosperity, social cohesion and security.