2019 Global Youth Trends Forum -Irish Youths in Taiwan!
Youths from 26 Countries Talk about the Future
21/11/2019; Youth Development Administration
With global youths from 26 countries across five continents gathering together, the 2019 Global Youth Trends Forum was held in Taiwan from November 5 to 11. This international event has been held for seven consecutive years so far. This year, the numbers of participating countries and young people both hit a new high. Several hundreds of young people from Australia, Bhutan, Brunei, Canada, Germany, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam came to participate in the event. Among them, the Ireland delegation formed by nine students from Letterkenny Institute of Technology、Raphoe, Co. Donegal、Institute of Technology Sligo and Galway Mayo Institute of Technology all expressed full satisfaction for this exchange visit to Taiwan and they would return to Ireland with fruitful results.
This year’s forum focused on three topics: Educational Creativity, Regional Revitalization, and Smart Living. The Ireland delegation was led to visit Tainan, Changhua, Hsinchu, Taoyuan and other places. The first spot was a case of Regional Revitalization—Togo Rural Village Art Museum, a non-traditional museum that wowed the Irish youths in the very beginning. Then, they visited some other brilliant spots, including Chimei Museum, which was on Parenting Magazine’s Thinking BIG of Learning Top 100 list in 2018, Youth Travel Spot in Fangyuan Township of Changhua County to experience the oyster culture and the unique oyster shell art, Natural Way Experimental Educational Elementary School that combines oriental humanities and ecology, and Sha Yang Ye Robot Wonderland (Pavilion of Future), the representative of Smart Living, to DIY a robot with simple mechanical transmission devices. Through the rich and diversified activity arrangement, these Irish young people obtained a further understanding of the local ecology, cultural heritage, scientific and technological innovation of Taiwan, and they also sparked ideas and gained cross-border friendships during the visit.
The highlight of the 2019 Global Youth Trends Forum was the forum conference on November 9 to 10. Vice President Chen Chien-jen made the opening ceremony speech, encouraging the young people present to give full play to their creativity and exert their influence with the original intention of “what we can contribute to society.” Audrey Tang, Minister without Portfolio of Executive Yuan, who was selected as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2019 by American Foreign Policy Magazine, was invited to serve as the panel host. In the panel discussion, Ms. Tang and three other guests, Chebet Lesan, founder of Kenyan smart-energy company Brightgreen Renewable Energy in, Toshiki Abe, founder and CEO of Japanese social enterprise Ridilover, and Justin Yu, co-founder of Taiwanese consulting company Plan b, shared their rich practical experiences, serving as successful models for the global youths present on how to integrate the forum’s three topics to practice the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of SDGs.
For the group discussion, the Ireland delegation focused on the topic of Regional Revitalization. They used case studies to explore the current problems faced by the country from different perspectives, and proposed an action plan. In order to response to the Wild Atlantic Way in relation to pollution, the Irish Delegation provided both long-term and short-term solutions about education: school learning between the ages of 4-18 years old, and reward cards while doing recycling. Apart from the solution from educational aspect, they offered two perspectives to protect the environment from pollution in the west coast. In fact, these creative and useful action plan made the Irish Delegation won the championship in the issue of regional revitalization in the second day of the forum.
After two days of brainstorming, these young people from all over the world had contributed to the sparks of wisdom and creative exchanges. At the end of the forum, the Cultural Night was held to enhance the friendship between these global youths. The Irish Delegation made every effort to present outstanding singing and dance performance, bringing a World Expo vibe to the audience. With their joyful music and brisk steps, all the distinguished guests and participating young people could not resist but to feel excited and tap along.
In today’s globalization trend, global youths have interacted more frequently in public participation and international exchange. This year’s forum is not the end but the beginning. International issues depend on young people’s long-term attention. They can only be improved and solved by global youths through continuous thinking, communication, and implementation with a common intention of bringing a positive change to the world. The Ministry of Education of Taiwan government also will continue to actively promote the cross-border exchange of young people. Through diversified channels such as overseas volunteer services, international experiential learning, international conferences, and exchange and study, Taiwanese youth are provided with more opportunities to participate in the international community, sow seeds of international friendship, cultivate an international vision, and strengthen the knowledge and action in international affairs.
Feel like to jointly build an ideal blueprint for our generations with young people from all over the world? If you want to know the most updated information of the Global Youth Trends Forum and international exchanges, you must not miss next year’s Global Youth Trends Forum! For more information regarding the event, please visit the official website of Youth Development Administration of the Ministry of Education (http://www.yda.gov.tw) and the Global Youth Trends Forum (https://iyouth.youthhub.tw/2019ypp/tw/index/index.html).
Cultural Night Performance
Action Plan Presentation