Youth with a Big Heart Symposium

Written by Delwin Keasberry Wednesday, 25 January 2012 21:01

Greetings Readers. Today I dropped by the "Youth with a Big Heart Symposium" at the Pusat Belia in Bandar Seri Begawan. The symposium was an initiative by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports as a follow-up to His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam's titah during the National Youth Celebration two years ago where he called for the Youth to contribute towards the social and economic development of the Nation. I was not able to stay the course of the event but was there long enough to find out that the following were on today's agenda: Religious Perspectives, Development of Technology for Creativity & Innovation, Socio-Economic Development, and Cultural Preservation.

If any of you were at the Symposium across the last two days, I would love to have a chat to hear about issues raised and goals set. Slip me an email - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Photograph taken today inside the Symposium hall prior to the start of the afternoon session

Here's an excerpt from the Borneo Bulletin dated Wednesday 25th January 2012.

"Youths in the country need to have various areas of excellence that can be used to further develop their potential, skills, capabilities and talents." "Aside from that, they should not be involved in non-beneficial activities and waste their time, energy and life. Instead, they must be willing to face obstacles and hardship in their life as part of their challenge in order to develop and succeed."Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Laila Diraja Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hazair bin Haji Abdullah said this yesterday at the Youth Centre in his keynote address during the opening ceremony of the two-day National Youth Symposium.

"In this context, youths should not be arrogant. They need to push themselves to be more competitive and to make contributions towards the community," the minister said.

In Brunei, youths (aged between 15 and 40 years) make up 50 percent of the total population. Therefore, it is necessary for youths to be resilient and competitive, ready to face challenges despite having to overcome various difficulties in their life. Youths are needed in achieving the country's vision and goals, especially in facing global economic challenges and developing various strategic fields, such as science, info-communication technologies and creative industry. In short, they are required to have patience and persistence for the betterment and progress of the country, and they need to set aside pessimistic ideas and the tendency to easily give up.

Pehin Dato Awg Hj Hazair later advised youth associations and individual youths to measure and evaluate how much they have achieved in line with the 'Belia Berjiwa Besar' theme. Pehin Dato Awg Hj Hazair also urged youth councils and other youth associations in the country to play the important role of providing guidance and shaping youths to become big-hearted. They also serve to encourage youths to engage in social and economic development agendas and address issues confronting social problems.

The rebranding of Youth Centres in the four districts is part of the ministry's initiative to allocate an arena and platform for youths to become actively involved in beneficial activities.