Skopje, 2 April 2024 (MIA) - Over two-thirds of the young people in the country have no interest in joining political parties, civil society organizations, or any kind of social activism. This is an alarm, but apparently an alarm that is not loud enough, or an alarm that is only seen in the platforms of political parties ahead of elections. This must change, because young people are increasingly deciding to leave the country, experts told Tuesday's panel sessions organized by the Directorate for Technological-Industrial Development Zones (TIDZ) as part of a series of events within "The Future Begins at Home" project. 

According to the experts, high standard and quality of life in general, clean air, education, health care, culture, sports, art, etc., is what every young person lacks here, but it is also something that every young person can get immediately in some of the European capitals, with a flight in a low-cost airline.

Statistics say the numbers are pessimistic. The population is declining, and with it the age structure is also changing - the able-bodied population aged 15 to 64 is decreasing, while the population over 65 is increasing. Participants at the event noted that research suggests North Macedonia would remain with about 1,400,000 inhabitants by 2070, while over 90 percent of the young people who have already gone abroad, do not want to return.

"Deeds not words are needed. A month ago, we promoted 32 successful young people from the country, young people from several age categories - students, schoolchildren, successful businesspeople, a wide range of cultural workers... This critical group of people, ambassadors of the "The Future Begins at Home" project, start today with a series of discussions on various topics and with specific proposals on how to build an action plan with concrete steps on how to improve the conditions, how to make this country more attractive for young people to give it a chance and stay here. Instead of only getting empty words, programs of political parties, we're looking for achieving concrete things with concrete people," the Free Zones Authority director Jovan Despotovski said.  

He also agreed that statistical data are not encouraging. 

"We saw an "interesting" presentation from the State Statistical Office, "interesting" in quotation marks because the projections are not encouraging, but it is good to know where we are starting from, to know that the goals are achievable, and we can achieve them all together. The group of 32 young ambassadors is quite coherent. We have people from the economy, not only businesspeople, we have people who work in some companies, but we also have high school students, students, people from education - teachers, university professors, etc.," Despotoivski noted. 

Communicologist Bojan Kordalov believes there is a big difference whether the state will keep young people here or motivate them to stay.

"We need to motivate young people to stay here because in that way, in fact, the state and the institutions are also motivated to create measures in the interest of young people, to make a state in the interest of young people, to involve them in deciding what it should look like. Otherwise, the message "let's keep young people here" creates a fear among many young people that they cannot gain experience outside. Gaining experience through learning, studying, working, volunteering abroad is very good for Macedonia and for all of us, but what must be changed, especially by the institutions, is the number that says that over 90 percent of young people do not want to return home. It's fine that they want to leave and get experience they can apply here, but refusing to return home should be something of a concern," Kordalov pointed out. 

Asked about the upcoming elections, he said the political campaign, which is to start on April 4, is more than somewhat toxic for young people. Most of them decide not to follow the campaign at all.

"I believe there is nothing worse than uninformed citizens, worse than unengaged youth," said Kordalov.

Marija Petrova, assistant at the Faculty of Architecture within Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, works on creating policies for young people.

"I am involved in part of the educational process of young future professionals, and it is a special challenge, because, as statistics have shown, it is young professionals who are missing in our positive future scenarios. We should put the emphasis, first, on young people, because they are the progressive capacity that should lead us to a better scenario," said Petrova. 

Photo: MIA