To achieve sustainable global growth, inclusive entrepreneurship is crucial and more should be done to encourage and support young people in launching startups, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Renaud Meyer, the UNDP's deputy resident representative, was speaking at the opening of the "Youth Co: Lab Summit 2023". The two-day meeting that was jointly organised by the UNDP and Citi Foundation wrapped up on Friday. Mr Meyer said this year's theme was on inclusive entrepreneurship, with a focus on empowering more young people in the Asia-Pacific region to become professionals who can contribute to society and their communities.
Some 20 countries participated in this year's event, which highlighted the role of young people in making the world more inclusive through their solutions to support the most excluded and hardest to reach groups to promote "leave no-one behind" goals.
Mr Meyer said young people can become agents of change in societies where they have been working and developing. He said from what had been observed among this demographic in the Asia-Pacific, youths are generally aware that their success depended on and was intertwined with the surroundings in which they operate.
"This generation of youths are not selfish. They understand that their success depends on the ecosystem in which they operate. So, if they want to be sustainable as a businessperson and they want to make profit and make changes to society, society has to evolve around them," he added.
Narumon Chivangkur, Thailand Citi country officer and the Citi Foundation representative, said financial management was a crucial skill they need to master.
"There is a lot of good knowledge and skills coming from these youth that is beneficial to society, but," she said.