KUCHING: Sarawak’s Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Ministry will continue to maintain its good ties with the federal Youth and Sports Department for the benefit of youths in Sarawak.
Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah stated this when speaking as the guest of honour and chairman of the Sarawak Level National Consultative Council at its 32nd meeting yesterday.
“This consultative council is another expression of the close working relations between us,” he explained.
“In Sarawak alone, youths between 15 and 30 make up 27 pct of the population and if a broader number of 15-40 is used, the number is closer to 40 pct of the population.
“These are the leaders of tomorrow, so the attention for them must be now and constant and not reactionary and an afterthought.”
Karim added that the Sarawak government would continue to work closely with its federal counterpart to continue the work in youth development and entrepreneurship through the National Youth Consultative Council.
“Youths between 15 and 30 years old will continue to be the focus of community development both by the Sarawak and the federal governments to assist the nation in withstanding the effects of globalization.
“The youths of today are a tougher lot to appease, possessing an overflow of information that is either verified or fake literally at their fingertips, thus creating the need for the government of the day to stay abreast with their aspirations or risk being replaced by them,” said Karim.
The state level National Youth Consultative Council convened from March 30 to April 16 this year, engaging with stakeholders to ascertain the aspirations of today’s youths in Sarawak.
The purpose of yesterday’s meeting was for the state council members to hear the findings of the consultations before they were compiled into a report which would be submitted to the federal ministry.
It is learned that the federal ministry will later use the findings of the state council as well as those findings provided by all the other states to formulate new national policies on youth development in the future.
Two noted academicians from local universities, who are part of the council, also presented papers at yesterday’s meeting.
Both papers focused on youth entrepreneurship and agro-business.
At its recent convention, the state level National Youth Consultative Council found out that today’s youths were more concerned with mainstream issues like the economy, government policies and broad-based issues like the environment and freedom of speech and expressions.
Although the advent of the information age had allowed the youths to broaden their horizons, locally perennial bread and butter issues like education opportunities, sports and recreation facilities and better internet connections still topped the agenda.
