As ASEAN celebrates its 40 Anniversary, Singapore is honored to play host for the Fifth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth (AMMY V). For the first time, the Youth Caucus was held in conjunction with AMMY V, organised by the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) and National Youth Council (NYC).

Some 50 youth delegates from various ASEAN countries gathered in Singapore from 22 to 29 April 2007 to share and exchanged ideas and views based on the theme “Youth: Creating Our Future Together”. More specifically, the youth delegates engaged in intense brainstorming and discussion to produce solutions to youth-related issues in the area of Education, Employment & Entrepreneurship, Environment and Engagement (Community) faced in the Asean Countries.

Distinguish speakers such as Mr. Rodolfo Severino (Education), Ms. Elim Chew (Employment & Entrepreneurship), Dr. Geh Min (Environment) and Dr. Chan Yew Wing (Engagement), were invited for the Plenary Session held on 23 April 2007, to share their valuable experiences & views on the respective topics. A strong team of facilitators was engaged to guide and provide mentor to the youth delegates to fine-tune their discussion and proposals.

On 24 April & 26 April, the youth delegates were given an opportunity through the platform of Youth Caucus to present their summaries of their discussions to the ASEAN Ministers and senior officials at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The youth delegates survived the ‘nerve-wrecking’ experience and did a wonderful job!

For the youth delegates to better understand the topics, institutional visits were organised to Qian Hu Corporation Limited, Pulau Semakau Landfill and SengKang Community Centre for the youth delegates to gain deeper insights.

The youth delegates also had the opportunity to visit one of the Singapore’s local favourite night spot, Ministry of Sound (MOS), as well as visited some of the local favourite tourist spots such as Sentosa.

The youth delegates departed for their respective countries on 29 April 2007. They brought back with them sweet memories of the past eight days… Hear what the youth delegates had to say:

Mr. Muhd. Zul Fadhli, 18, from Brunei said “Youth Caucus has taught me to be more responsible, mature and yet to be creative”.

Mr Alvin Neo, 21, from Singapore shared that “Youth Caucus has given me an outlook on how youths from ASEAN countries work together for a better future. I’ll never forget this amazing eight days”

Mr Ephraim Loy, 25, Liaison Officer for Vietnam Delegates, concluded the event by saying “It’s been a wonderful experience hosting delegates from ASEAN. Youth Caucus has provided a platform for ASEAN youths to get together and share ideas on topics. It has been a great learning journey. I will not forget the times that I have spent over the eight days with my delegates and fellow youth liaison officers.”