Jakarta, 26 Oct. 2022 — The annual Youth Co:Lab National Dialogue 2022, a national gathering of Indonesian youth entrepreneurs who have banded together for the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, kicked off today with a focus on digitalization and green economy transition.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Citi Foundation co-lead the national dialogue, in collaboration with the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK and the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora), along with the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA), and the British Council.

The three-day dialogue is expected to attract over 500 participants from the  youth entrepreneurship ecosystem, including national and provincial governments, the private sector, particularly, investors, and venture capital firms, to civil society groups and academia.

“We chose this year's subject because the urgency of climate action and the SDGs fuel our innovation to involve more youth in digital entrepreneurship and the green economy. There is a clear business case for us to push this agenda to the forefront,“ said UNDP Indonesia Resident Representative, Mr. Norimasa Shimomura. 

According to the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, the MSMEs or entrepreneurship contribute approximately 61 percent to Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides  97 percent total jobs in Indonesia.

Acting Deputy for Human Development, Community and Culture of the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), Mr. Subandi Sardjoko, said that involving youth  to green economic transition is an essential part of the country’s strategy.

“An ecosystem approach, strengthening regulations and institutional governance, revitalizing infrastructure, strengthening coordination and synergy across sectors, and involving youth as equal partners are some of the main things that need to be considered in optimizing the improvement of the quality of competitive youth," he said.

Echoing his remarks, Director and Country Head of Corporate Affairs, Citi Indonesia, Ms. Puni Ayu Anjungsari said the national dialogue is expected to make meaningful contribution to Indonesia’s development process.

“Entrepreneurship has a strategic role in supporting the national economic growth. To optimize this huge potential, the youth, as the nation's successors, need to have sufficient opportunities and access in becoming one of the drivers of the economy in the future through entrepreneurship. This 2022 National Dialogue is held to invite stakeholders to intervene and jointly tackle various challenges of the youth, in order to achieve the government’s 3.95 percent entrepreneurship ratio target by 2024 launched by the government. I hope that this initiative can take us one step further in providing a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem for Indonesian youth to thrive for Indonesia’s development,” she said.

This year’s national  dialogue was based on the dissemination of the National Strategy (Stranas) for Youth Entrepreneurship developed by Bappenas and the Next Generation Indonesia study report commissioned by the British Council.

The Next Generation Indonesia study report, which is part of a series of British Council global studies focusing on youth, was conducted in Indonesia’s 34 provinces with more than 3,000 respondents, to understand the aspirations, hopes, and challenges faced by Indonesia’s youth.

Mr. Summer Xia, Country Director of British Council Indonesia, said “Listening to the youth and identifying how the British Council can work with them, is very important in creating a more sustainable future for the youth in Indonesia. Next Generation Indonesia has enabled us to do just that. We are excited to share our findings which we hope will benefit many organizations working with the future generation of Indonesia.

Youth Co:Lab National Dialogue 2022, Celebrating 5 years of Youth Co:Lab Indonesia

The 2022 National Dialogue event was also held to celebrate 5 years of the Youth Co:Lab Indonesia. Youth Co:Lab, a UNDP and Citi Foundation Co-lead project, aims to set a common agenda in more than 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia by 2018, to invest  and empower youth to accelerate SDGs implementation through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship.

For the past 5 years, Youth Co:Lab Indonesia has reached 17,000 beneficiaries across the country, supported more than 300 young entrepreneurs, and launched more than 150 new business ideas from the youth.

MEDIA CONTACTS

UNDP Indonesia Communications Specialist, Tomi Soetjipto, (suryo.tomi@undp.org)

UNDP Indonesia Youth Engagement & Entrepreneurship Officer,

Randa Sandhita(randa.sandhita@undp.org)

Corporate Affairs Citi Indonesia, (corporateaffairs.indonesia@citi.com)

British Council Senior Programme Manager,

Ari Sutanti (ari.sutanti@britishcouncil.or.id))

About Youth Co:Lab Indonesia

Jointly initiated in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to set a common agenda for more than 20 countries in the Asia Pacific region to invest and empower youth in order to accelerate SDGs implementation through leadership, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. Youth Co:Lab was launched in Indonesia in 2018 and provides end-to-end entrepreneurial approach for  youth throughout Indonesia. To date, more than 300 entrepreneurships have been supported, over 1100 youth have received capacity building, over 17,000 beneficiaries have been reached, and more than 150 business ideas have been launched, and 57% of the businesses are led by women.

About Citibank N.A., Indonesia

Citibank N.A., Indonesia (Citi Indonesia) is a full branch of Citibank, N.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Citigroup, Inc., which is based in New York, United States of America. Citi does business in more than 160 countries and provides a wide range of financial products and services to companies, governments, investors, institutions and individuals. In Indonesia, Citibank Citi was established since 1968 and is one of the country’s largest foreign banks. Citibank operates 9 branches in six major cities – Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Medan and Denpasar. In Indonesia, Citibank has a corporate distribution network of around 6,000 locations in 37 provinces. Citibank N.A., Indonesia is connected to the ATM Bersama network with more than 77,000 ATM terminals spread across various locations throughout Indonesia.

In 2022, Citi Indonesia received prestigious awards as Best Global Bank in Indonesia, Best Bond in Indonesia and Digital Bank of the Year in Indonesia from The Asset Magazine, and one of the Best Bank in Indonesia from Forbes Magazine.

www.citigroup.com.

About The British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021-22 we reached 650 million people.

 www.britishcouncil.or.id 

For more information on the Next Generation visit:

https://bit.ly/BritishCouncil_NextGeneration