Malaysia is a Youth-Friendly Country - Minister

PUTRAJAYA, June 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is a youth-friendly country which provides various opportunities and freedom for the young people to express themselves and showcase their talents, Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said. He said the organising of the Millions of Youth Gathering, for example, which saw 530 programmes and activities held for the interests of the youths, clearly proved the Malaysian government's concern about the future of youths and how it appreciated the ideas and opinions of these young people. "There is no other countries, except Malaysia, that will allow its administration centre to be fully occupied by the young people to carry out their programmes and activities for five straight days. "More than 2.4 million youths attended the gathering," he said at the appreciation dinner for the staff involved in the National Youth Day 2012 celebration here on Sunday night. Present were his deputy Razali Ibrahim, Youth and Sports Ministry secretary-general Mohid Mohamed and Information Communication and Culture Ministry secretary-general Kamaruddin Siaraf. Shabery said the government would also welcome ideas and suggestions from the youths to rebrand the National Youth Day as Putrajaya Youth Festival so that it would be at par with other world-class festivals to lure more participations of youth and the general public. "We want to make the festival as a brand for Malaysia, like the Songkran Festival for Thailand and Samba Festival for Brazil. "We will study the possibility to make it an annual event and we will seek advice from all quarters to make it a success," he said. -- BERNAMA