THE 3-day bootcamp which started on Oct 26 at @CAT witnessed 12 teams made up of Penang youth that pitched their innovative approaches to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the final and third leg of Youth Co:Lab in Malaysia.
Youth Co:Lab is a UNDP Asia-Pacific youth entrepreneurship initiative to position young people front and centre to solve the region’s most pressing challenges.
The themes of Youth Co:Lab are centred around the United Nations SDGs and are designed to explore viable solutions in the following issues: 1) Income Generation for Undocumented Persons, 2) Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability and 3) Finance Inclusion for Marginalised Communities.
The 3 themes were selected due to their interconnected impact on the marginalised communities in Malaysia.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, who attended the awards and closing ceremony for the event, heaped praises on the efforts made by the organisers as well as the participating youths for looking for solutions for issues hindering the UN SDGs.
“It brings out aspiring future changemaker and social innovators in Penang. Thank you the organiser for giving our youths the opportunity to be the agent of change to lead new solutions that meet the SDGs. We welcome all youth residing in Malaysia, not limited to Malaysians only,” he said.
“The UNDP Youth Co:Lab as a platform for youth engagement and entrepreneur startup platform is also timely and a great complement to our recently established Penang i4.0 Seed Fund of US$1 million” added the chief minister.
Also present were CEO of Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) Ashran Datuk Ghazi, Citigroup Transaction Services Malaysia managing director Srinath Sambasivan, UN Resident Coordinator of UNDP Resident Representative of Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei Stefan Priesner and @CAT programme director Howie Chang.
Story by Victor Seow
Pix by Law Suun Ting