Delegates from 22 countries who assembled for the event, which was a prelude to the Kuala Lumpur Summit (KL Summit) 2019, held discussions on six clusters aiming to strengthen the well-being of youth via education, catalysing digital economy, and strengthening the future of youth in politics, The Borneo Post reported.
The rest of the clusters encompassed the gig economy and sustainability, adapting to the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), and spreading integrity and transparency in ensuring good governance.
Among others, they favour establishing a youth empowerment monitoring body to track the progress and delivery of youth-related initiatives, issues and indicators of participating countries.
They plan to jointly sign a memorandum of agreement to establish the legitimacy and boundaries of the body.
Another resolution calls for the creation of a business incubation programme for budding entrepreneurs’ pre- and post-idea stages.
Malaysia’s youngest minister urged global Muslim leaders today to make youths an integral part of their countries’ discourse, ahead of a key summit to discuss Islamic “revivalism”.
Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman opened the KL Youth Summit 2019 here by calling for governments to heed the voice of younger generations and give them equal representation in policy decisions.
He said there must be a “collective signal” from Muslim countries to acknowledge the youths’ contributions.
“They don’t just want to have a seat at the dialogue table, they want a seat at the decision-making table,” he said of youths worldwide, as quoted by Malay Mail.
“We are just as capable,” he added.
The delegates are also pushing for the setting up of what they call the ‘Youth’s House of Ideas’, an education think tank tasked with identifying key issues and problems in the sector among Islamic nations.
On IR 4.0, the participants proposed the formation of what is known as the ‘Youth Powerhouse’ focusing on, among others, IR 4.0 training and education and providing jobs via tie-ups with companies in the Muslim world.
The resolutions were presented to the leaders taking part in the main KL Summit that kicked off last night.
