With a purpose to invite youths from all over the world to discuss international trends and issues, the Youth Development Administration of the Ministry of Education holds the Global Youth Trends Forum every year. This year, the event will be held from 9 to 10 November. A total of 350 youths aged 18 to 35 from 26 countries on five continents are invited to participate in the gathering and exchanges. Through brainstorming sessions, the youths demonstrate their creative thinking and create specific and feasible action plans for the future.

This year, the main topics of the forum focus on Educational Creativity, Regional Revitalization, and Smart Living to help youths understand the connotation and future development trends of important public issues. Audrey Tang, Digital Minister at Public Digital Innovation Space (PDIS) in the Executive Yuan of Taiwan government, is invited to host a special panel discussion to show the effectiveness of Taiwan government in promoting relevant issues, as well as to create a digital dialogue with youths in a form of no distance and no border through the Facebook live stream and the Slido online platform.

In addition, three other special panelists, Toshiki Abe, Chebet Lesan, and Justin Yu, from Taiwan and overseas are also invited to share their journeys and valuable practical experiences of promoting youth affairs with the youths. Toshiki Abe is the founder of Ridilover, a well-known Japanese company focusing on social issues; he was honored “Top 30 under 30 Asia” by Forbes when he was only 29. Chebet Lesan is the founder of Brightgreen Renewable Energy, a Kenya smart environmental energy company. She was invited by Clean Cookstoves, a United Nations Foundation-hosted initiative, to give a speech in New York; and was also one of the only three Kenyans that won Queen’s Young Leader Awards for her personal achievements have been recognized by the Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Last but not least, Justin Yu, co-founder of Plan b. This Taiwan-based consulting and planning company provides its world-wide clients with feasible solutions using sustainable development as a strategic tool. Plan b has also transformed the open space idle in cities, attempting to create the largest new office space “CIT (Center for Innovation Taipei) " in Taiwan. Mr. Yu and his team were invited to share their incredible achievements at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in July this year.

In addition to inviting these three influential people to share their experiences through a dialogue with the participating youths from Taiwan and overseas, this year’s forum also has three main topics that respectively correspond to the Sustainable Development Goals of SDGs. The first is Educational Creativity (corresponding to SDG 4: Quality Education), which is to respond to the new education ideas that have been intrigued around the world by the change of education concept, hoping to promote the public’s cognition and action on this issue and further enhance the social attention to education through the youths’ exchange on educational creativity. The second is Regional Revitalization (corresponding to SDG 11: Sustainable Cities), which is to respond to the issues of regional population reduction, aging population and declining birth rate, overpopulation in big cities, and the imbalance of urban and rural development, hoping to improve the global regional balance and pass on local characteristics through the exchange of regional revitalization cases. The third is Smart Living (corresponding to SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure). In view of the development of communication software and hardware technology and application services, people’s demands for smart living have been met in a way of continuous innovation. It is hoped to further promote the popularization of smart living and optimize the life quality of all human beings through smart living cases in various countries and the idea exchange.

Focusing on the above topics, the youth delegations from participating countries will share the current situation and problems of their own countries. These 350 youths from Taiwan and overseas will further propose original action plans after the discussions with each other in the hope of sparking ideas through international exchanges.

Whether you want to explore a diversity of issues, seek inspiration and ideological sparks, or expand your global vision, or connect with the international community, please pay close attention and do not miss the annual youth forum! Every youth is welcome to turn in to our Facebook live stream on time at 10:30 a.m. on November 9  and join the keynote speech and communication on the Slido online platform. from 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. For more and detailed information, please visit the official website of the forum (https://iyouth.youthhub.tw/2019ypp/tw/index/index.html).