Established in 1999, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) first consisted of 12 member countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, The Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and The United States. Since its inception, APEC has been instrumental in promoting economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

Today, APEC has 21 member countries with People's Republic of China, Hong Kong China, Chinese Taipei, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, The Russian Federation and Vietnam joining the original 12 founding members.

For 2009, the theme of APEC is ‘Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region’. APEC 2009 is focused on overcoming the economic crisis and positioning member countries so that they recover well in the post-crisis world.

Many youths may not know the influence of APEC and the economies that make up this cooperation. I happen to be one of the uninformed ones too. Did you know, for instance, that out of 192 UN recognised member states in the world, APEC’s 21 economies alone account for about 60 per cent of the world’s GDP?

You probably thought that such congregations only involved renowned and powerful leaders from the various countries. But think again. APEC Voices of the Future (VOF) 2009 this year involves 116 youth delegates from 18 APEC countries, comprising 39 delegates from Singapore and 77 delegates from other APEC economies from Nov 9-15. It is an annual event that allows youths from the member countries to engage government and business leaders on APEC-related issues.

Youth who were interested to be part of the delegate corps had to go through a stringent process of selection. They had to write an essay (the topic was “The Role Youth can Play in Sustainable Development in the APEC economies”), undergo a selection interview and above all, maintain a track record of active youth, community or public service.

So what happens when 116 promising youth leaders gather together for a week? Conversations that entertain, intrigue and inspire.

This writer met Avnish (right), who studies Business Management in Singapore Management University (SMU). He willingly took off precious time from the peak period of his college semester to be in VOF because he sees this opportunity to interact with business leaders as hard to come by. So what impact does VOF actually have on the common youth?

“Definitely one for the fact that the concept of APEC is not common among youths. Voices (VOF) serves as a platform for the delegates to gain insights from interviews with other delegates and leaders! I update about my learning insights on Twitter and Facebook as I’m a heavy user of both platforms. Also, the delegates have to write reports about their reflections from interviews done with various individuals,” says Avnish.

He shares with us that his friends are curious about his involvement in VOF and have asked him questions about APEC itself. The business student would like to contribute to the growth of Singapore and the larger APEC by sharing with peers his knowledge of financial planning and the fundamentals of financial principles, such as the risk of trading.
 
Xue Na, 24 (left), also represents Singapore in VOF. Currently working as a human resource professional, she joined VOF for a chance to interact with young delegates from different APEC nations who share a common concern for economic and social issues. She believes her involvement in VOF has likewise sparked the interest in her peers.

“Through Voices (VOF), people ask us what’s APEC; the role; the significance; the countries that constitute APEC in terms of economic development. We also have a Facebook membership of more than 1,000 on our fan page given an initial membership of only 20 delegates. Youths can read about the updates from Facebook regarding APEC. Through the eyes of participants, peers around them learn about it as well!” quips Xue Na.

In career fairs, the human resource executive regularly meets people who have been jobless for months. With such experiences, she has grown to become more aware of their plight and believes the unemployment issue is a concern not only for the government, but also the youths. Moving forth, she also hopes to see a shared database that manages labor shortage and see that their rights are protected to assure foreign workers who come here to work.

This writer also spoke to Faris, 20, who is on a break from his studies. The avid volunteer with the National Kidney Foundation and Young PAP member applied to be a local delegate for VOF as he is interested in politics and youth issues. So what sort of impact does Faris think the APEC has on common youths?

"Those youths who are not involved directly [in VOF] may be ignorant about it and hence APEC itself may lose relevance to them. However, I think youths can be connected by reading the reports and analyses that delegates have done," commented Faris.

Faris hopes to move on from a observational role to one where he can be actively involved to raise awareness about the problem of the social income gap as that is an issue close to his heart.

Aside from local youth, there were many other foreign youth delegates as well who added to the cultural diversity of the program.

Jiyoon, a 20-year-old business student from Korea, got to know about VOF through her Singaporean friend while doing an internship in India. She subsequently joined VOF because she thought it was a golden opportunity for her to meet business leaders. One thing is for sure: she has huge aspirations.

"I think everything starts from Voices. We [the delegates] have become friends and hopefully in the future when we become future leaders of our country, we can make peace for the world. Voices is really about cooperation and human networking,"

Jiyoon has learnt Mandarin before and speaks fluent English and Korean. She hopes to further her interest in Intellectual Property Law and eventually aid cross-border dialogue.

For these youth delegates, it looks like they will be walking home at the end of this week with a renewed perspective of life and a simple yet powerful realisation that youths have the potential to make a change. But only—and only if—they believe in themselves and share some responsibility towards the world too! BL

PHOTOS: BENJAMIN LOH

Benjamin is an idealist who wants to make a difference. One day, he hopes to reinvent and introduce reforms to the education systems in Third World countries to leave his mark in this world.

THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF Nov 9-15 :: The Now Issue