Singapore Youth Summit 2005

During a heated question and answer period, the participants peppered the panelists with questions. Many wanted to learn about micro-credit. Others were interested in debt cancellation, while some pondered whether it would be possible to eliminate poverty forever.

“What I found interesting here was the question posed: ‘Is development necessary?’” reflected Farrah Zubeir, 16, United World College of South East Asia.

“As an economics student, I would have found the answer to this a basic ‘yes’, but when so many different ideas were raised about the necessity of this, and the fact that even within ‘developed’ countries, the same problems such as equity arise; my opinion faltered. Whilst I still do maintain that each country needs to develop in order to maintain a position in global proceedings, it is interesting to analyze exactly what they need to do, and how countries need to find their own routes to achieve this.”