Sen. Bam Aquino called on Cebu youth leaders to push for greater innovation in helping achieve inclusive growth through social enterprises and community-based enterprises.
Aquino, who was the first speaker in yesterday’s opening of the Dream Expo Cebu held at the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. – Eduardo Aboitiz Studies Center (RAFI-EADSC), said the country’s economic growth had yet to be felt by the masses.
“Ten years ago, the Philippines was referred to as ‘the sick man of Asia’ because we couldn’t take off. Ten years later, we are among the breakout nations, the rising star,” he said.
Dream Expo Cebu is the fifth run of Dream Expo Ph under The Dream Project that was started by a youth leader and social mover Prim Paypon in Negros in January this year.
The movement aims to gather youth leaders in an area to meet fellow leaders and draw inspiration from speakers who have been successful in their social transformation projects.
Last year, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.2 percent, the highest in the Asean region and the second in Asia after China which grew by 7.7 percent.
Youth issue
“Despite that we still have a high unemployment rate of 7.1 percent and an underemployment rate of 19.3 percent. This indicates that the growth is not inclusive. This is a youth issue because most of the unemployed are the youth,” said Aquino.
He encouraged youths to be entrepreneurs and help create jobs.
“I believe that the Filipino youth have that capacity to be creative and help solve social issues through innovative ideas,” he said.
Aquino is founder of Hapinoy and Rags2Riches which are considered successful models of social enterprises that benefit the lowest income groups and help ease poverty.
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