EMPOWER YOUTH TRAINING PLATFORMS TO PRODUCE FUTURE INNOVATORS, TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURS - AHMAD ZAHID

SERI ISKANDAR, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wants platforms like the Perak Youth Aspiration Centre (PASAK) to be empowered because it has the potential to produce innovators, technology entrepreneurs, and change-makers.

Ahmad Zahid said this can be realised following the success of several young entrepreneurs who have achieved international levels as a result of big ideas becoming industry game-changers in the country.

"I believe that if this can be combined together, God willing, great ideas will emerge, just as we see with the company Carsome. They started only with an awareness to perform a transformation in the used car industry.

"They did it with full efficiency and the choice to do it with reverse engineering, from there they built digital solutions and changed the used car market until it emerged as Malaysia's first technology unicorn, which is now worth billions of dollars in the Asian region," he said.

He said this while speaking at the Launch Ceremony of the State-Level Idea Festival (FOI@Negeri) and the Perak State Idea Festival (FOI@Perak) Year 2025 at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perak Branch, Seri Iskandar Campus today.

Also present were Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and the ministry's Secretary-General Datuk Dr Anesee Ibrahim.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said the organisation of the National Idea Festival must become a new arena for the wave of creative and innovative thinking, not only in the capital city but also spread to rural areas.

"I want every state, including Perak, to become a new arena for the National Idea Festival so that the wave of thinking, creativity, and innovation does not stop in the capital city, but also echoes into the towns and villages.

"My vision is clear, the Idea Festival must go beyond an annual event and become a year-round movement. We want schools, universities, and rural communities to all be part of the national idea wave," he said.

He added that every idea must also be translated into concrete action through the Industrial Idea Consortium to ensure that the creations of the youth do not stop as prototypes but are immediately matched with government agencies, investors, and GLCs (Government-Linked Companies).

"We will establish the Innovative TVET Pavilion, an exhibition space for students to showcase their creations and technology resulting from their skills, proving that TVET is not a second path, but the path of the future.

"We will hold the Rural Hackathon, an arena challenging young people to find creative solutions for agriculture, fisheries, and small rural industries.

-- BERNAMA