Youth Co:Lab Summit 2019 ends in Hanoi

April 9, 2019

iReka team with Arividya Arimuthu, Senior Director of Digital Economy and International Relations, Ministry of Entrepreneurship Development of Malaysia, Ms Ng Kar Sin, Manager (ACE) MaGIC and Jun Faredda Jabar, Programme manager, UNDP

The largest Youth Social Entrepreneurship Movement in Asia and the Pacific, the Youth Co:Lab Summit 2019 took place in Hanoi, Vietnam last week from the 2nd to 5th of April.

The summit gathered about 500 over participants from different backgrounds to come together and discuss innovation challenges, ways to work together for a bigger impact as well as plans for the next upcoming Youth Co:Lab national dialogues and bootcamps.

Ireka Team with Arividya Arimuthu, Senior Director of Digital Economy and International Relations, Ministry of Entrepreneurship Development of Malaysia and Celina Benjamin, Director & Head of Corporate Affairs of Citibank Malaysia

Malaysia was represented in this regional event by team iReka. The team, hailing from Penang comprised of Muhammad Najhan, 27 and Mohd Razman, 35 presented in the Social Innovation Challenge where their idea on financial aid and affordable housing plans to help underprivileged farmers in Malaysia was pitched.

The winners of the Social Innovation Challenge fell to Pandoo (Indonesia), Aeroroots (Nepal), MUNE (Korea), AI Sight (Hong kong), Tasty Kitchen Collective (Fiji) , Deaf Tawk (Pakistan) and Avijatrik (Bangladesh).

Although not on the winning side, team iReka said “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We have met so many other social innovators in Malaysia and the region and we are just thankful that the government of Malaysia, Citibank Malaysia and UNDP for bringing us here and joining us here to give us support. We are also thankful to be part of this event and learn from every team!”

UNDP Malaysia would like to thank Citi Malaysia, Ministry of Entrepreneurship Development and MaGIC for their endless support on Youth Co:Lab and putting Malaysia on the map of social innovation.

Stay tuned as UNDP Malaysia brews another chapter of Youth Co:Lab for 2019!

Team Malaysia!