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VP Sara cites role of ASEAN youth in nation building

August 8, 2022 Jester P. Manalastas 383 views

VICE President Sara Duterte emphasized the importance of the roles of the youth in nation building as well as the togetherness and unity among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members.

Duterte delivered a speech at the 55th founding anniversary of the ASEAN to which she stressed that one of the ways to involve the ASEAN youth is to ensure that they are equipped with the knowledge and skill set needed in a highly competitive environment.

The Vice President thanked the members of the ASEAN for enduring friendship, cooperation, and unity made stronger in the past 55 years as nations in a region with common pre-colonial history and today nations with served, shared dreams and aspirations.

“Togetherness and unity these have been the underlying values that formed the foundation from which ASEAN was built 55 years ago today, and these are some of the values that continue to reverberate — and even more meaningfully and resoundingly now that the world is facing the challenges brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic and complex regional and international security challenges and their repercussions to our economic stability,” she said.

“Let me emphasize that the Philippines is now aggressively pursuing a future alongside a youth sector aware and conscious of its essential role in nation-building. Important role as this is something that should not be dismissed or something that should be lost in the noise brought by the complexity of our current time,” she added.

Duterte, who is also the Education chief, said for ASEAN to be able to successfully pursue its regional agenda and maintain its strong presence in the world, it should seriously invest in our youth.

“Today, ASEAN is home to more than 600 million people. We have a larger population than the European Union or North America. We make up the third-largest labor force in the world, just behind China and India. And the majority of our population is composed of young people,” she said.

She appealed to the ASEAN members to keep on providing the children with access to quality education, coupled with a deep sense of love of country and fellowmen.

“As we endeavor to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, our challenge is to figure out how to ensure that all of ASEAN will reach its potential by 2030. Your excellencies, I believe that we should focus on the ASEAN youth. By strengthening intraregional scholarships and cultural exchanges between our countries, we will be able to increase the free flow of ideas, innovations, and skills,” the Vice president pointed out.

“As we celebrate this milestone, may we strengthen the ASEAN regional cooperation even more through unity in diversity guided by the vision and will to allow the youth to be at the forefront of our undertakings as individual countries and as a regional bloc. We still have time. We have the resources. Now more than ever, together, we must act as one,” she added.