ASEAN to strengthen youth collaboration, fight against climate change: Singaporean minister

SINGAPORE, March 21 (Xinhua) -- ASEAN members would work together to build stronger ties among the youths and fight against climate change, a Singaporean minister said here Wednesday while chairing the 19th ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Council Meeting.

According to Desmond Lee, minister of Social and Family Development of Singapore, three initiatives will be launched this year when Singapore is holding the ASEAN rotating chairmanship.

The Singapore-ASEAN Youth Fund will be renewed to support ground-up initiatives by ASEAN youths in fields including leadership development, community service and entrepreneurship. Singapore will also host an ASEAN-eSports tournament this year. The ASEAN Youth Fellowship Programme will be introduced to provide a platform for young leaders in ASEAN, according to the minister.

Lee said that Southeast Asia is a region vulnerable to climate change and "we all have an interest to address this issue urgently."

He noted that Singapore has designated 2018 as the Year of Climate Action to arouse national awareness of the importance of the issue. Moreover, it will host a special ASEAN meeting on climate action in July to reaffirm their commitment to the Paris climate agreement.

On the education front, some 78 projects are to be carried out to lessening the educational gaps among the ASEAN member states, the minister said, adding that the International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology will be held in June to cater to ASEAN participants. Enditem