THE Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof on Wednesday attended the opening ceremony of the ‘Asean+ Young Leaders Summit’ at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
The Young Leaders Summit – themed ‘Youth Driving the Asean Community’ – was held as Asean embarks towards the realisation of the Asean Community, said a press release.
The ceremony was officiated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who in his keynote address stated that the Youths of Asean who made up 60 per cent of the Asean population, are key to the advancement of Asean as it strives to integrate and solidify its engagement in developing a progressive and inclusive regional mindset for an Asean Community that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
The deputy prime minister also stressed that Asean’s youths must respect cross-cultural obligations in the region, thus appreciating the effort from the Asean forefathers and continuing the peace in the region.
Meanwhile, in his welcoming remarks, Khairy Jamaluddin, Minister of Youth and Sports of Malaysia, highlighted that Asean as an entity has very significant status especially in terms of its economics and cultural strengths.
The minister called for youths parti-cipating in the summit to come forward with fresh ideas and recommendations towards enhancing the Asean identity and development agenda.
In this regard, the minister underlined the need for a balanced growth in Asean, underpinned by the shared values of innovation, empathy, social justice, good governance, respect of sovereignty and multilateral consensus.
Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, the officials of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Bruneian representatives
Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi with Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister of Youth and Sports of Malaysia. – PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BRUNEI DARUS-SALAM’S DELEGATION
The Asean+ Young Leaders Summit was participated by more than 300 youths from Asean member countries, nine dialogue partners (Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States of America) and Timor Leste.
Brunei Darussalam was represented by 10 youths from the various sectors relevant to the four pillars of the summit, namely: Leadership, Volunteerism, Entre-preneurship, Education and employment.
The Asean+ Young Leaders Summit – which was held in conjunction with Malaysia’s Chairmanship of the Asean Summit – was aimed at providing a platform for youths of diverse backgrounds to interact, discuss and brainstorm the various pertinent issues and challenges facing the region, particularly matters that concern the youth.
The main outcome from the youth summit will be a Youth Manifesto for Asean consisting of a set of concise, practicable, and in-depth recommendations which will be presented to the Heads of States at the forthcoming Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi also had the opportunity to call on Malaysia’s Minister of Youth and Sports. During the call, both ministers reiterated their commitments to further strengthen the existing close relations between the two countries and explored new areas of cooperation to be implemented, particularly in the areas of youth and sports development.
Accompanying Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi at the Asean+ Young Leaders Summit were Dato Paduka Dr Haji Affendy bin Pehin Orang Kaya Saiful Mulok Dato Seri Paduka Haji Abidin, Permanent Secretary at the Ministy of Culture, Youth ans Sports, Dato Paduka Haji Alaihuddin bin Pehin Orang Kaya Digadong Seri Lela Dato Seri Utama Haji Awang Mohd Taha, High Commissioner of Brunei Darussalam to Malaysia and senior officials of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of Brunei Darussalam.
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