The Malacca Youth Associations Council (MGBM) has urged the government to extend the implementation of the age limit for youth under the Malaysia Youth Policy to beyond 2018, the noted deadline.

Its president, Mohd Ridhwan Mohd Ali, said the new age limit of 15 to 30 years would have an adverse impact on youth associations in the country if implemented in 2018.

He said currently, the age limit was 15 to 40 years under the National Youth Development Policy 1997, and that generally members of youth associations in the Malacca state hoped for the new age limit implementation to be deferred.

"This is because most of them are aged between 30 and 40," he told Bernama after attending MGBM's 33rd Annual General Meeting, which was opened by Chief Minister Idris Haron in Malacca last night.

He said the planned implementation of the new age limit should be reviewed as it could affect the running and administration of the existing youth associations.

Mohd Ridhwan said the time limit of until 2018 was too short a period to sort out things in the youth associations before they would be handed over to the echelon leaders, hence they were concerned about possible arising problems.

"For example, almost all the members of Majlis Gabungan Belia Daerah Jasin will be reaching the age of 30 and above, hence the implementation of the new age limit will affect its running and activities."

He added that in light of their concerns, the 16 youth associations affiliated to MGBM had started collecting membership data for the issue to be brought to the national level.

Mohd Ridhwan noted MGBM also urged the government to set back the retirement age for civil servants to 55 from 60 currently, to provide more jobs in the sector for young people, especially graduates from tertiary institutions, who were finding it difficult to get employed.

He said MGBM also urged the government to look into the house ownership issue faced by youths, the numbers of which were very low as the price of houses was too high while the cost of living kept increasing.

- Bernama