UN official urges Chinese youth to work toward a better world

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson on Friday urged Chinese youth to not only try to understand the world as it is, but to never forget what it should be. ` "Your job is to try to diminish, or reduce the distance between the two," said Eliasson during a speech at Renmin University, Beijing.

"Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something." he said, advising young people to make the world better.

He noted that organized crime and growing youth unemployment brought enormous challenges to the whole world.

To deal with these challenges, he called on countries to work together to find common solutions.

He said we all lived in an interdependent world and no nation was isolated.

As this year marks the 70th anniversary of the UN, he looked back at its role in settling disputes and conflicts, suggesting that people should not simply focus on the conflict itself, but also before and after the conflict.

"We should listen to the first vibration and it is in this stage that you need to act," he said, emphasizing the need for prevention and timely action.

He also underscored the importance of institution building, so that crises or war does not happen again.

Using Sweden as an example, he said a strong education system and social infrastructure helped transform it from a poor country into one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

He introduced the three pillars of the United Nations, namely Peace and security; Development; Rule of law and institution building, to the audience.

In terms of development, he said 2015 could be an important year for development, as the UN will discuss the Sustainable Development Agenda (SDG) in September, while the Paris Climate Change Conference on reaching a new global climate agreement will be held in December.

Eliasson, who is on a four-day visit to Beijing that ends on Saturday, earlier met with senior officials and discussed UN cooperation with China. Endite