358 mln jobless in world — IDS chief
KOTA KINABAKU: The Institute for Development Studies (Sabah), in partnership with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and in collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), is organising a seminar entitled Youth Unemployment: Entrepreneurship as Valuable Alternative Source of Job Creation and Economic Dynamism for Youth in Sabah at a leading hotel here.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Sabah has been invited to officiate at the one-day seminar which will be held on September 13.
In a statement yesterday, IDS chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun said the increase in number of unemployed youth worldwide is a worrying trend.
“There are more than 358 million young people across the globe who are unemployed. The figure is greater than the population of the USA and Canada combined. This represents loss of human capital that could contribute to economic growth and to overcoming poverty,” he.
Simon said Malaysia in general and Sabah in particular shared the same concern. Moreover, various researches findings strongly indicate that there is a strong need for employment opportunities especially focus on young people. Thus, reduction in youth unemployment is always a key objective for government policy makers. It requires actions across the public and private sectors to do two key things: create more jobs and give young people the skills and confidence to fill them.
“The goal of increasing employment in Sabah need inclusive and robust economic growth and it is only achievable through collective action. Encouraging entrepreneurship among youth should always be the core to these efforts. Entrepreneurs play a vital role in job creation and providing opportunities to young people as entrepreneurs tend to increase the size of their workforce. Creating new entrepreneurs and supporting existing ones to grow their business will have an impact on employment rates and political stability.
“However, allowing youth to start their own businesses is great challenge particularly to provide them with support and to create environment to turn their business ambitions into reality,” he added.
Simon said the various stakeholders such as policy makers, academicians, research institutions and the private sector must be aware of what young people require in order to be effectively playing their role.
“In view of this, the Institute for Development Studies (Sabah) is organising a one-day seminar to address on how all stakeholders in Sabah can help drive job growth and provide an environment where the dreams of thousands young people make an impact and start their own enterprises,” he said.
The main objectives of this seminar are to increase the public awareness especially youth on the vital role of entrepreneurship as job creation and providing opportunities to young people; to provide updates on government efforts in encouraging entrepreneurship; to provide avenue for entrepreneurs and business leaders to share their experiences and responses on the best way of nurturing the next generation of wealth and job creators; and to provide platform for youth to be heard of what they need to enable them to succeed.
This seminar is open for 180 participants consisting young people, government policy makers, academicians, research institutions, community leaders from all over Sabah, members of the NGOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders.