Promoting cross-regional understanding and collaboration among our youths

Ambassador Zhang Yan, Executive Director of Asia Europe Foundation,

Mr Soh Yi Da, President of ASEM Young Leaders Network,

Mr Xavier Nuttin, LKY School of Public Policy,

Distinguished Guests,

Youth Delegates,

1. A very good afternoon to all of you, and a warm welcome to all foreign delegates who have travelled here to join us at the Model Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Singapore 2015. I hope you will have some time to explore our beautiful garden city while you are here.

2. I know that some of you are staying with your Singaporean counterpart. This is very good because you can then really bond, foster friendships and understand the Asian, the Singapore culture.

Global issues today

3. This is the first time Singapore is organising Model ASEM outside of the usual biennial circuit. I am encouraged by the strong presence of young delegates from both Asia and Europe, because it shows that you are keen to play a part in making a difference to the global issues of today.

4. Rapid changes in technology are also fast disrupting the traditional ways businesses work. You can ask your parents and grandparents. Businesses that have been operating for many decades, maybe even centuries in Europe, are now challenged and disrupted by what we called “disruptive innovation”. What are the skill sets and resources that youths need, like yourselves when you enter the workforce or start your own companies? I once asked a Mckinsey partner who told me that for your generation, every one of you will on average, change jobs for at least 15 times in a lifetime. This is because of pull factors, not just because of push factors. For various reasons, such as you starting your own company, or moving on to another company to seize other opportunities. This reflects that there are indeed many opportunities for our youth in the 21st century, especially in Asia. So can ASEM be the platform for youth entrepreneurship, or a platform for you to exchange ideas and create solutions for problems faced today and in the future.

5. What about the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, and the proliferation of social media usage in this aspect? Can youths be an effective voice in engaging our governments on such issues? These are important questions to think about during this Summit. I urge all of you to keep an open mind, and gather the perspectives of the other delegates to get a broader worldview.

MCCY's involvement in ASEM & regional cooperation through giving

6. In Singapore, we believe in promoting youth engagement and exchanges across the region. Through the National Youth Council, we also support youth sector organisations within the region through the Singapore-ASEAN Youth Fund. This additional resource has provided many youths with funding for their community projects and developmental programmes. We also partner institutions such as the ASEM Young Leaders Network to promote ground-up efforts and build more partnerships between Asia and Europe. All these programmes have strengthened the spirit of youth cooperation across the region.

7. One key approach is to develop the spirit of youth cooperation through giving back to the communities. I believe strongly in this saying – it's in giving that we receive. We tend to think that we are helping the vulnerable or beneficiaries, which are words that I avoid because they connate the clients as recipients of help. But actually, the smile that we put on the other people's faces is a rewarding experience that schools cannot provide. Through this journey of creating joy for the others, we learn more – we learn about compassionate and become a more gracious person. I believe that there is no shortcuts to transforming this nation into a more gracious society. We can only do so through promoting more volunteerism, and hope that this becomes a lifelong journey. So don't stop at this Summit. This is only a start for your to start your lifelong journey of giving back – for your community, your country or across the region. So, we create an environment that helps young people such as yourselves sustain and amplify your efforts to do good.

8. In 2000, we started the Youth Expedition Project (YEP) for youths to engage in community projects overseas. YEP provides funding for students to undertake projects in the region. To date, the YEP has supported more than 26,000 youths and 1,300 expeditions to ASEAN, India and China.

9. I remember Pin Qi, a graduate from Temasek Junior College, now 24. She participated in the YEP to central Cambodia when she was a student in Temasek Junior College and since then she has continued to lead YEP teams from her JC alumni.

10. These YEP teams built a library and sanitation facilities in a village in Cambodia, and also taught English to the children there. The team members saw the positive impact they could have on the children. All this inspired them to get more involved in community work. The YEP for them was truly a transformational experience, and they have found tremendous fulfillment by touching the lives of others in a meaningful way.

11. This is the positive side of what we are doing and we are very happy with the results. Unfortunately not everything is positive. When the team came back to Singapore they faced great difficulties finding a VWO that would match their interests. They could not find opportunities or platforms to continue volunteering. Some of the team members also hesitated to step up and lead subsequent YEP teams, as they felt their leadership training was not enough to prepare them adequately.

12. Further, we observe that participation in volunteerism follows a “bathtub” graph shape - young people tend to be active in causes in school, but the activism dips when they are occupied with their careers and families, and they come back to volunteering only when their children have grown up or when they retire.

13. So we started Youth Corps Singapore, a national programme that takes a holistic and sustainable approach towards nurturing a new generation of youths who want to contribute to the community either through local projects or overseas stints.

14. Over the past year, some 200 aspiring Youth Corps members received mentorship and training. They launched various projects in a wide range of areas, such as education, special needs, and the environmental sustainability.

15. Hui Yee is one such volunteer who I had the pleasure of meeting on two separate occasions. Hui Yee is a fulltime Special Education teacher at Eden School. Her passion for helping those with learning difficulties motivated her to volunteer with Youth Corps Singapore.

16. As a teacher of students with ASD, Hui Yee is in a job that is both rewarding and challenging. Yet Hui Yee has also chosen to devote her free time to help out at an adult day activity centre for the intellectually challenged.

17. Hui Yee and her fellow aspiring Youth Corps members noticed that the clients and the centre staff communicated through very vague hand gestures. So, her team set out to improve the communications by using symbols on a specially designed board. And over a couple of months, this mechanism helped everyone, the clients as well as the centre staff better understand each other and communicate better such that the client have enough courage to venture out of the centre and interact with the community.

18. Next, our young working adults are also getting into the spirit of giving. How many of you know what is Ya Kun? Well, if you have not tried one of Singapore's favourite breakfast choice - the traditional kaya toast bread with kopi, please ask any of your Singaporean friends seated here to bring you to Ya Kun.

19. Mr Jesher Loi, the Director of Branding and Market Development at Ya Kun International, was one of the “50 for 50” ground-up initiative participant. The initiative brought together 50 young adults to partner with companies, like UOB and Banyan Tree, to fundraise for 50 worthy community and social causes. Mr Loi committed his company to donate 50 cents to charity for every Christmas Frostyz drink that sold during the Christmas season. He also helped to rally other business owners to contribute to his cause.

20. Individuals like Hui Yee, and companies like Ya Kun see themselves as part of a giving nation. We hope for giving to become part of Singapore's DNA. And we start from the young.

Translating ideas into action

21. You can be a part of this change too and need not always look to the Government for the solution to the issues of the day. There is certainly space for you to work with your respective Governments and non-governmental organisations to make this world a better place. Start your own ground-up projects to implement the ideas from the summit. Tap on the wide network of your fellow delegates to gather resources. A mark of this summit's success would be the number of ideas that are implemented for the youth, by the youth.

22. Finally, I would like to commend the ASEM Young Leaders Network for organising Model ASEM Singapore 2015. I hope this will be become an important platform to promote cross-regional understanding and collaboration among our youths. I wish all delegates a fruitful and successful Summit ahead. Thank you.