Awards and Closing Ceremony of (United Nations Development Programme) UNDP Malaysia Youth Co:Lab 2018

Speech by Chief Minister of Penang
At Awards and Closing Ceremony of (United Nations Development Programme) UNDP Malaysia Youth Co:Lab 2018

28 October 2018 (5pm)
@CAT Wisma Yeap Chor Ee

 

Ashran Dato' Ghazi
CEO of MaGIC

Srinath Sambasivan
Managing Director of Citigroup Transaction Services Malaysia, Penang

Stefan Priesner
UN Resident Coordinator of UNDP Resident Representative of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei

Distinguished guests and participants

Members of the media

Ladies and gentlemen

A very good evening to all of you.

My heartiest congratulation to the winning teams as well as to all the potential social entrepreneurs and innovators in this room today. It gives me great pride to be addressing all of you and learning about your ideas and solutions in your hope to solve some of the most pressing issues in Penang and Malaysia in general.

I am sure this 3-day bootcamp has created an impact on the participants by focusing on the 3 themes given:

1) Income Generation for Undocumented Persons
2) Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability
3) Financial Inclusion.

Most importantly, it brings out aspiring future changemaker and social innovators in Penang. Thank you the organiser for giving these youths the opportunity to be the agent of change to lead new solutions that meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our target is youth aged between 18 – 35 years. We welcome all youth residing in Malaysia – not limited to Malaysians only.

Penang has progressed considerably well to achieve high income economy status despite being the second smallest state in Malaysia, with limited resources and a population of 1.7 million people. This has taken much effort through good governance, rule of law, integrity in leadership and human capability assets.

As an example, the median household income in Penang rose from RM 4,702 in 2014 to RM5,409 in 2016, and is above the national average of RM5,228; whereas the improved incidence of poverty decreases from 0.3% in 2014 to 0.1% in 2016.

While we celebrate these successes, we also recognise there are other emerging and persistent challenges that still needs to be worked on, such as the urban poor and marginalised communities, as well as adapting to increasing extreme weather events, climate change, and addressing biodiversity conservation.

The reality is that, pockets of urban poor, marginalised individuals and households remain despite various government aid and welfare programmes. You will still find needy individuals and families, in need of necessities such as shelter, food and drink. To the low-income group of people, they are not forgotten. Various programmes were lined up and still being carried out to tackle this matter.

In recent year, Penang, as well as other cities in the world have experienced a dramatic change in the occurrence of natural disaster. Climate change, a global phenomenon, is happening sooner than we think. In November 2017, Penang was hit by the worst floods in the state’s history. The 15-hour storm caused a massive flood, 194 reported landslides on Penang Hill and widespread infrastructure damage that paralysed the island state. The natural disaster claimed seven lives, 12,662 victims, involving 3,068 families which were evacuated, but I am sure many more were affected by the floods.

We are grateful with the aid that poured into Penang from all sides, such that within 10 days, we were able to clean and get Penang back on its feet. Many small island states are vulnerable to extreme weather changes such as from the threat of rising sea levels. Last year’s storm event has demonstrated that Penang is no exception. Penang has recorded 119 flash flood incidences since 2013. Climate change mitigation and adaption is definitely one of Penang’s top priorities to address.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Often help comes to underserved individuals and households through NGOs programmes that provide welfare, or social enterprises whose non-traditional business model can access communities and offer services that public or private sectors are unable or unwilling to provide. Social enterprises may innovate something new but could also innovate to improve what is already existing such as quality, affordability, convenience and speed of services.

We acknowledge and appreciate the role of social enterprises as important in retaining and reinvesting profits back into the local economy. This is often through jobs creation or by funding projects that can benefit the community or the environment. The combination of business acumen and social awareness are the key features of social entrepreneurs.

We recognise the opportunity to channel the ideas and solutions generated through UNDP Youth Co:Lab to complement the initiatives under Penang 2030 – an action plan for Penang which I launched just last month. One focus area under the Penang 2030 looks at 'Empowering People to Strengthen Civil Participation', which aims to uplift vulnerable communities and reduce inequality. We want to create more platforms for public involvement in social development, and the UNDP Youth Co:Lab is one such example.

The UNDP Youth Co: Lab as a platform for youth engagement and entrepreneur start-up platform is also timely and a great complement to our recently established Penang i4.0 Seed Fund of allocation of USD 1 million. Introduced in March 2018, the i4.0 Seed Fund provides funding for qualified high potential early stage technology start-ups to grow Penang’s tech ecosystem.

Since its launch, 16 companies have been awarded the funding with a combined allocation of RM1.67 million. So, to all the teams and participants, I encourage you to check out the Penang i4.0 Seed Fund to continue to pursue your ideas and solutions.

The three days that you have spent is only the beginning. I hope you will continue this journey of continuous learning and exploring, particularly of the social and / or environmental issues that are close to your heart, so that it motivates you to work on the solution.

I aspire to see some of you here, if not all to be entrepreneurs, and to embody the spirit of entrepreneurship and working together. I hope that each of you will take away more than just an experience but found inspiration by learnings from the Youth Co: Lab sessions, as well as from the people and network you have made. I wish you every success in pursuing your dreams and hope that you will in turn inspire other youths in your community. So, here’s for a better tomorrow. Good luck and all the best.

Thank you.