Government help for youths

I REFER to the report “Barisan has plans for youths” ( The Star, March 12). Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has said that our youths play a significant role in nation-building as part of the National Transformation 2050 (NT50) programme. Developing and implementing appropriate strategies, policies and programmes to mitigate the risks and challenges faced by youths must take more priority than it is currently getting.

Failure to provide opportunities for this large segment of the population could have enormous economic, political, cultural and social consequences.

Our education system needs to be restructured to ensure that a bigger percentage of our youths in schools and universities are encouraged to take up technology education. There should also be more emphasis on creativity and innovation, research and development and industry-based learning.

Development projects, including the MRT, High-Speed Railway, the East Coast Rail Link, Pan Borneo Highway and the logistics centre in Bukit Kayu Hitam, to name a few, need graduates in digital technology, for example.

The Government could set up a youth enterprise development fund to encourage youths to set up businesses.

The fund could provide loans, set up business or industrial parks, stalls, markets or business incubators that would be beneficial to youthowned enterprises, and help youth-oriented enterprises to develop linkages with larger enterprises.

The other initiative where the Government must also continue to focus is to engage our youths in sport activities.

Sports plays a major part in the well-being and health of our society, both mental and physical. Being active in sports would reduce obesity and non-communicable diseases among our youths, and a healthy youth population would be competitive to achieve our National Transformation objectives.