In the future, youth will use social entrepreneurship as the process by which effective, innovative and sustainable solutions are pioneered to meet social and environmental challenges, said professor Bramantyo Djohanputro from Indonesia yesterday.
“A social entrepreneur is someone who designs and implements an intervention, product and service the improve the well-being of marginalized individuals and populations,” he said.
The professor added that a social entrepreneur could be determined as “a venture that has vision and mission to solve social problems and/or promote positive changes of the welfare of society and the environment through activities that have measurable impacts and which reinvest the majority of its profit to support the mission”.
The virtual and face-to-face meeting on the theme “The Role of Young Sociopreneurs (social entrepreneurs) to Support the Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ASEAN Community in Indonesia and Cambodia” was organized by the Indonesian Embassy at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra hotel yesterday to celebrate the 93rd anniversary of the Indonesian Youth Pledge Day.
“We choose the theme of sociopreneurship by taking into account that the sociopreneurship phenomenon is quite high among young people who view that sociopreneurship is a solution to the desire to run a business, but at the same time it also overcomes the problems that arise in society,” the Indonesian Ambassador Sudirman Haseng said.
He added that “Youth Pledge” was initiated by Indonesian youth in 1928 to determine the future of their nation with everyone coming from different races, ethnicities, religions, skin color and status.
“Today’s youth have the determination to advance the future of the nation from the socio-economic and societal frame. The belief that individual welfare, community welfare and the welfare of the nation are shared tasks, underlies the thoughts, enthusiasm and determination of young people to work as entrepreneurs based on social and humanitarian spirit,” he said.
According to the Ambassador, youth play a crucial role in political, economic and social change and even the United Nations (UN) recognizes the important role of youth in society. That is the reason why the UN chose August 12 as the International Youth Day,