The 3rd Edition of the Youth Forum Brunei (YFB) on Saturday brought together 200 youth for Brunei’s progress and development.
Themed ‘YOUTH BERSATU: Rising for Transformation’, the forum was hosted in conjunction with the 40th National Day cele-bration. It was co-organised by the Young Professionals Network (YPN) Brunei and the Youth and Sports Department of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and supported by MuBN Learning and Growth Company.
Permanent Secretary (Wawasan) at the Prime Minister’s Office Pengiran Hajah Siti Nirmala binti Pengiran Haji Mohammad was the guest of honour.
Participants included youth, students, young professionals, community leaders, youth in non-governmental organisations, teachers and government officers.
The forum began with opening remarks from YPN co-founder Mohammad Ashmeer Imtiaz Ahmad as the project lead of YFB. He touched on the forum as not only a platform to empower the voices of youth, but also serves to provide an opportunity for youth to discuss and exchange views while finding a common direction to help build a sovereign, developed and sustainable country.
The first session ‘Together Reimagining Brunei’ saw an open forum with Progresif Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hajah Nurul Haniah binti Haji Jaafar; Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam Deputy Chief Information Officer Yusof Sidek; and National Digital Payments Network Sdn Bhd CEO Hafiz Haslen, CFA. It was moderated by YPN External Relations Lead Fadli bin Zaini.
Youth advocate Yasmin Khadeeja also shared her views.
The second session ‘Leaping for Transformation: Bruneian Youth as Highly Skilled, Future Ready Agents of Change’ saw a forum conversation with associate consultant at ChangeLeader Hajah Zainab MA Omar, Managing Director of Mindtrex Academy and MindPlus Education Sdn Bhd Pengiran Khairi bin Pengiran Haji Metussin, and Curious Mind founder Shaun Hoon. It was moderated by YPN volunteer Aimuni Suffian.
Sultan’s Scholar Alumni Association member Muhammad Fikri bin Haji Ali shared his thoughts on employability, succeeding in the labour market and contributing to national development.
The afternoon session saw a workshop on ‘Empowerment for Change: Transform, Advocate, Act!’. The session combined transformation and self-development to social impact awareness with advocacy and activism aimed at empowering participants to become design thinkers, who as change agents, can mobilise for good within their communities.
The session was facilitated by MuBn Learning and Growth Company founder Dr Hajah Mona Yati binti Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Mohd Kassim. The YFB also featured two youth sharing sessions from Tebalik Plastik founder and co-founder Jiayih Goh and Syahmi Zulfadhli bin Abdullah on their transformative journey to giving plastic a second chance and Universiti Brunei Darussalam student Madelyn Ling on embracing the journey to authentic growth.
The session ended with a summary of the proceedings presented by lead rapporteur Yura Sri Nur’Ain Qaisara binti Abdullah Yura Saiful Bahrin. – James Kon
