Sarawak establishes its own Youth Index
KUCHING: Sarawak is the third state after Sabah and Johor in Malaysia to have its Youth Index to assess their quality and wellbeing.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said a team of experts comprising academicians from various universities is conducting a 10month survey for the Sarawak Youth Index.
“We have a professional team to conduct the survey, which commenced last month and is expected to conclude in May 2019.
“Sarawak Youth Index has 12 domains and 15 indicators. Not less than 14,000 respondents will be engaged in the survey. We try to be as detailed as possible,” he announced during a news conference at Bangunan Baitul Makmur in Petra Jaya yesterday.
Given the number of respondents involved, Abdul Karim said the feedback for developing the Sarawak Youth Index is expected to be accurate and better reflect the situations.
According to him, all the 13 divisions and 40 districts across Sarawak will be involved in the survey.
“We do not want any district to be left out as this will be an accurate and comprehensive survey to cover from the town to the interior. The professional team will collect data for us, which should help us come up with development plans and policies for youths in both rural and urban areas,” he said.
He added that Sarawak Youth Index will be “an index to determine the wellbeing of our youths” and a guideline to set policies for youth development.
Towards this end, Abdul Karim said a Youth Development Taskforce had recently been formed to oversee the matter as well as the development of youths and youth-related policies.
“For the first time, we have set upthistaskforce,andweareproud of this establishment. It aims at streamlining programmes and policies related to our youths,” he said.
He added that the taskforce had its first meeting last week and will hold two meetings a year.
Abdul Karim said the taskforce will also play a role to recognise the contributions of youths to Sarawak and nation development.
Apart from that, he said it will also address social ills among youths by coming up with solutions as well as to chart the future plans to better youth development in Sarawak.