Strengthening bridges between youth leaders of Singapore and Brunei

Speech by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth & Trade and Industry, at the 7th Singapore-Brunei Youth Leaders Exchange Programme

His Excellency Dato Paduka Seri Awang Haji Aminuddin Ihsan, Minister for Culture, Youth and Sports of Brunei Darussalam,

Youth Leaders,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Good afternoon! So for a start, I want to congratulate all participants for completing the 7th Singapore-Brunei Youth Leaders Exchange Programme. I am very happy that we have kept up with the annual tradition of organising this bilateral programme together with our friends from Brunei Darussalam, despite being unable to meet physically due to the ongoing pandemic.
2. And COVID-19 has indeed become a defining experience for all of our young people, from all over the world. In Singapore, the pandemic has created an opportunity for us to think about the kind of society we want to be, and how we can emerge stronger, together. ASEAN Member States are also taking active measures to restructure their economies and put in place measures to support those who have been most impacted by the pandemic. I would like to encourage us to stand united in solidarity with our ASEAN Member states and friends to overcome this crisis together.
3. Singapore and Brunei have demonstrated our commitment to mutual cooperation by setting up Reciprocal Green Lanes (RGL) in September this year. This was in fact one of the first few RGLs we set up, as soon as both countries were ready. This is a testament to our strong friendship and appreciation of our inter-dependency.
4. I would like to describe our friendship, or liken it to a bridge which has been built and strengthened day-by-day by earlier generations of youths and leaders. We are relying on all of us here, our youth leaders, not just to reinforce this bridge that our earlier generations have so painstakingly built, but to extend this bridge so that it will lead us out of the darkest storms safely.
5. So, what is required for us to reinforce this bridge that I am talking about? I would say that the secret ingredient as always lies in our people and our ability to connect and build lasting relationships with one another. I would like to propose a couple of ideas on how we can do this.
   
   

   Promoting interaction and understanding between youths in the region

6. The first is in providing opportunities for our youths and our young leaders in the region to interact and to better understand one another. This sets the foundation of stronger ties between our people.
7. In Singapore, we encourage our youths to get to know their counterparts in the region and explore collaborations. Over the years, we have created platforms that cultivate strong youth-to-youth ties between Singapore and other ASEAN Member States, including of course, Brunei.
8. I would just share a little bit about some of these platforms:
   
   a) The first is The Singapore-ASEAN Youth Fund – it has supported close to 180 meaningful and sustainable projects since 2007. We hope that other ASEAN Member States will continue to use this fund to promote exchanges and ground-up initiatives among our youths. So, that is the Singapore-ASEAN Youth Fund.
   
   b) The second initiative is the Asia-Ready Exposure Programme, which was launched earlier this year. It will enable Singapore youths to gain cross-cultural and industrial understanding of our region, effectively, our backyard. This comes alongside the Youth Expedition Project, which also provides opportunities for youths to take on service learning projects in the region. When travel resumes, we hope to extend these opportunities to more than 10,000 youths each year.
   
   c) The third one is Ongoing exchanges between Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) under the National Youth Council, and Outward Bound Brunei Darussalam (OBBD) under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. Such exchanges continue to provide both OBS and OBBD a way to share best practices in outdoor education. It helps to inculcate a sense of adventure, ruggedness and also resilience, which is really helpful, particularly in dealing with crisis.
9. So, through these programmes, our youths can come together and learn more about one another’s cultures, and form a strong foundation for friendships that will last for many years to come.
   
   

   Creating opportunities for cooperation between youth leaders

10. Now, besides a solid foundation, a bridge also needs to be reinforced to withstand frequent storms, like the storm that are facing today. Which brings me to my second point, about how our youth leaders need to have opportunities to collaborate, and further cement the relationship between your generation of young leaders.
11. Suffice to say we live in an interconnected world, where problems are no longer constrained by where we live, or our geographical boundaries. A single issue that had arisen in one country will very quickly spread to another, just by going online. And so it underscores the importance of cooperation between our countries in working together to navigate these challenges.
12. So, to nurture this next generation of leaders, of which many of you are represented here, we will provide opportunities for youth leadership development across the many countries that we’re talking about. When youth leaders interact with one another, as you have been today and through many years before, these bonds will be strengthened.
13. One example which I’ll always remember fondly is the ASEAN Youth Fellowship which was launched in 2018 to cultivate a network of young leaders in the region. Over the course of two runs; 2018 and 2019, we have seen about 80 ASEAN Youth Fellows come together to share their ideas, skills and resources, and work on projects for social good. And we thank Brunei for their strong support thus far, and we look forward to future runs when travel continues in the region.
14. In fact, I remember, before joining Government, I was part of the ASEAN Youth Fellowship hosting a lot of our ASEAN Youth Leaders including Brunei through the Facebook office in Singapore. I remember that the camaraderie between the ASEAN Youth fellows then was very strong, and I am happy to know that it continues till today.
    
    

    Leveraging our strengths to overcome challenges together

15. So, the sudden onset of COVID-19 has caused great disruptions to countries all over the world, and this brings me to my final point – which is that the pandemic underscores the importance of leveraging all of our individual strengths to overcome the challenges together.
16. If you take the recent online Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) summit as an example – it marked the signing of the world’s largest Free Trade Agreement involving all ten of our ASEAN Member States, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. All countries involved in this landmark Agreement are committed towards broadening and deepening economic ties in all of these countries that I have shared. Even though we were not able to meet physically, our partnerships can continue to deepen. And these partnerships are very good examples of how we are fortifying the bridges we have built, which will help lead us out of the storm.
    
    

    Conclusion

17. In closing, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Brunei Darussalam for working with Singapore’s National Youth Council to deliver the SBYLEP as a virtual programme this year. The strong friendship and partnership between Singapore and Brunei is something that we can all be very proud of.
18. SBYLEP is just the beginning. There will be many more opportunities for all of us to stay connected and collaborate with one another. We will continue to support all of your work together to improve our communities, drive change, and make ASEAN a better home for all. So thank you for allowing me to say a couple of words and a big warm thank you to all of our youth leaders as well as our friends from Brunei. Thank You!