ASEAN CHAIR 2025: YOUTHS TO GAIN BETTER UNDERSTANING OF SDGs THROUGH CONVENTION - HANNAH

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 (Bernama) -- Youth in the country will gain a better understanding of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through the SDG convention held next year as Malaysia assumes chairmanship of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said the convention would also provide youth the opportunity to share their views, especially those related to SDGs, from various perspectives.

"We will get to hear perspective beyond the borders of Malaysia and for young people, when you expose them, they come out of their box and engage with others. So, every time when they get new perspective, it really pushes them to think beyond themselves and not to see the reality as the only reality.

"I hope to read the resolutions that will be coming forward from this group of young minds and it's very important that we continue to engage them because they are the ones who must decide on the type of future that they want for Malaysia," she told the media after officiating the Malaysian Youth SDG National Convention 2024 at the International Youth Centre (IYC) here on Tuesday.

The three-day convention, organised by the Youth and Sports Ministry through IYC, with the help of the Institute of Youth Research Malaysia (IYRES), began yesterday and is a platform for sharing actions and resolutions by youth on SDG and to empower them as agents of change.

At the 'Youth Shaping The Future' forum earlier, Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) secretary-general Dr K Nagulendran had stressed on the importance of letting the public understand SDGs.

"Out of the 17 goals what does it really matter is, for example, to a friend from the Orang Asli community (to understand about it). 

"I feel efforts by the IYC and several other leaders to tell the public about SDGs are very important as there are many things that we have done that actually contribute to SDGs,” he said.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Edward Vrkic and Foreign Ministry’s Multilateral Political Division, Department of Multilateral Affairs Principal Assistant Secretary Ahmad Irshad Ahmad Razib also attended the forum on Tuesday.

Besides the forum, an SDG School programme and Youth as Researchers (YAR) programme were held to empower youth and leaders at the school level to build a development agenda at the national and global stage.

The convention is also in line with the Malaysian Youth Policy and the MADANI Youth Development Model 2030 that emphasises on youth internationalisation, sustainability and leadership.

-- BERNAMA