From co-saving plans to regional work programmes: PM Wong promises to seriously consider youth's policy proposals

SINGAPORE - A co-savings plan to help lower-income youth here accumulate adequate emergency savings.

Programmes for more young people to gain regional work experience and exposure.

Even a national standard for recyclability labelling to raise recycling rates while reducing bin contamination.

These were among the draft policy recommendations put forward by 120 young people at the inaugural Youth Policy Forum on Aug 24 after nine months of research, consultations and discussions, including with relevant stakeholders and government agencies.

On its part, the Government will seriously consider these proposals and how they can be implemented, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said during a dialogue with some 1,000 young people at the forum.

He emphasised that this does not mean every recommendation will be accepted, nor should that be the basis for judging the work that has gone into them.

Proposals may not be approved for a range of reasons, such as being very hard to implement or requiring a lot of resources that are not currently available, said PM Wong.

Meanwhile, others may just be ahead of their time, and have to be carried out in the future, he added.

"I've had many, many instances as a civil servant putting up recommendations which were not taken up too," he said at the event organised by the National Youth Council and held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

"That's fine, that's part of the policymaking process, so it shouldn't constrain you to say, 'Oh, I'm so disappointed, next time I don't put up ideas any more'."

The proposals were put forward by four youth panels, comprising about 120 young people aged 15 to 35 years.

They delved into the policy areas of financial resilience, career and employment opportunities, digital well-being and environmental sustainability.

The panels were convened in November 2023, after they were first mooted by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong in Parliament in April that year.

This came as the Forward Singapore exercise had surfaced the desire of young people here for greater transparency and involvement in the Republic's policy decisions.

Once finalised by end-2024, the recommendations from the four panels will be submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, the National Youth Council and supporting government agencies.

The agencies will then consider and respond to the recommendations within the first half of 2025.

Panel members like Ms Wee Su-Ann, who is on the team looking at financial resilience and cost of living, said the process was an eye-opener on using data to see where cost pressures came from, and what measures were already in place to alleviate them, such as CDC vouchers.

"It affected how we looked at the issues and how we could tackle them, so we focused on how we can help people manage their personal finances," said the 26-year-old lawyer.

Meanwhile, the panel on jobs found that Singaporean youth recognise the value of working overseas, but often in the context of Western countries rather than in Asean, said panel member Nayla Cyrill Sabrinanda Riza.

This is why the panel developed a recommendation to strengthen awareness of South-east Asian culture and opportunities from as early as in secondary school, said the freshman at Singapore Management University.

Other proposals included having an annual survey to monitor online harms among Singaporean youth on social media, which would provide a consistent data set to analyse trends over time and find ways to tackle them.

The panel on digital well-being also proposed that social media platforms be held to accountability standards for reports of harmful material lodged by users.

At the forum, Mr Tong thanked the panellists for their months of work which, among other things, saw them engage some 4,000 other young people here to solicit ideas and incorporate views from the broader public.

He said the experience has been valuable to the Government on how to engage with citizens, as well as the younger population.

"(It has) taught us something - that when you open up more spaces, more people will feel empowered to come forward," added Mr Tong.

PM Wong said the Government is committed to a process of engaging with youth here on their ideas, and to providing more ways for them to be involved, even after the first run of the youth panels ends later in 2024.

"At the end of the day, whatever the format, whatever the modality, we do want young people to be involved," he said.

ALSO READ: 100 days in office: PM Wong says govt studying how to tackle cost of living concerns, take better care of seniors

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.