This will be the first forum in which 40 young leaders of both genders from Saudi Arabia and China will meet face-to-face in three different Chinese cities to promote friendship and mutual understanding between the two nations.

Addressing the Saudi participants at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before their departure to China here late Thursday night, Yousef Al-Sadoun, deputy minister of economy & cultural affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “This youth forum is the reflection of the vision of King Abdullah’s global dialogue initiative.” He added: “These young participants are the real wealth of Saudi Arabia, and they should be provided with more opportunities to learn from others.”

This 10-day forum is being organized by the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) and the Committee for International Trade (CIT) under the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The SCYF’s preparatory meeting was attended by senior Saudi officials including Omar A. Bahlaiwa, CSC’s secretary general and Samar Fatany, a CIT board member who is also a columnist and radio journalist.

The Saudi delegation to China will be led by Al-Sadoun. Senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CSC, including Bahlaiwa, Fatany, Omer B. N. Al-Bunyan and Abdullah F. Al-Sowilam and will also accompany the young participants.

The forum’s highlights include the participants’ visit to Chinese institutions and landmarks in different cities besides their interaction with young Chinese students in two prominent universities. The focus will be more on cooperation in the areas of science, technology, economy and culture, according to Al-Sadoun. The participants will also visit the Shanghai World Expo 2010, where Saudi Arabia has the second largest pavilion.

Asked about the objectives of the forum, Bahlaiwa said: “The idea is to build bridges between Saudi Arabia and its strategic partners like China.”

He said the forum would encourage young people to actively engage and support the development of Sino-Saudi relations and raise people-to-people contacts to a new level. “We look at the youth of China with great hopes and to build relations with them for the betterment of the two nations,” he added.

Bahlaiwa said that CIT seeks to generate awareness about the culture and heritage of the Kingdom and promote its image abroad. The group, he said, would also pay a visit to a 800-year-old mosque in China and interact with Chinese Muslim youths.

“What we need is unprecedented vision and wisdom, to open hear-to-heart contacts between Saudi and Chinese people,” said Fatany. “A strong partnership between Saudi Arabia and China is a necessity for which dialogue between young people is the key component. I am very happy that young people are committed to breaking the barriers and to working together for a better world and better relations between Riyadh and Beijing.”

The SCYF, she added, would be both an achievement and a starting point for boosting further links between the two countries.

“The importance of this dialogue for the future of the wider relations between Riyadh and Beijing and its impact on global governance cannot be ruled out,” said Fatany.

The young leaders from Saudi Arabia include Marwah Salem M. Abdujawad, Sara K. Almaeena and Yousuf Najeeb H. Al Bassam.

Other participants are Alaa Hashim A. Al-Hashim, Boshra Abdullah S. Al-Eidy, Rakan Abdulsalam Al-Saadoun, Mohammad Sameer Al-Thaqafi, Mohamad Anwar Al-Shingiti, Lamis Ammar D. Al-Mufti, Sarah A. Al-Khedheiri, Khalid Abdullah H. Masri, Maryam A. A. Al-Seini, Salman Nasser Y. Al-Rashed, Haneen Rayed Kh. Krimly, Dima Ikhwan, Bader A. Al-Hammoud, Saad Melhi Al-Shahrani, Abdullah A. A. Shakhi and Saud Abdullah Al-Zaidi.