Zimbabwe is keen to emulate the 1Malaysia For Youth (IM4U) programme, an initiative under Malaysia's National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS), in their youth development activities.

Permanent secretary at Zimbabwe's Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Judith Kateera, said empowering youth through volunteerism activities in the spirit of love and working together without expecting any financial rewards could help to build a better community.

"That is something that we are not seeing every day and we are going to emulate the Malaysian initiative.

"We are looking forward to hold exchange programmes between youth; to have Malaysian youth coming over to Zimbabwe, and we can also bring our youth to Malaysia to see youth activities here. Let our youth meet and interact and exchange (ideas)," she said.

She told this to Bernama when met during an excursion programme for the International Conference on Blue Ocean Strategy (ICBOS) delegates at IM4U Sentral in Puchong today.

The exchange programme according to Kateera could be a platform for Zimbabwe's youth to gain advantage and foster good relationship with Malaysian youth, complementing the existing relationship between leaders of both countries.

The delegation later proceeded to visit Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) in Cyberjaya.

Commenting on MaGIC, Kateera lauded the centre's idea of promoting entrepreneurship among Malaysians, saying that it could help solve unemployment and boost economic growth.

Citing her country as an example, Kateera said the problem of unemployed graduates was that they could not find jobs, and not because they are not productive.

"So we are going to encourage our youth to identify potential areas where they can create businesses," she said.

Meanwhile, chairperson of MaGIC Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, when met during the visit, said the centre welcomes foreigners who are interested in entrepreneurship and ready to facilitate them through various programmes.

"There is the MaGIC Accelerated Programme aimed at connecting regional entrepreneurs with global mentors, industry experts, investors, and like-minded peers," he said, adding that interested applicants could visit MaGiC's website to get updates on opportunities on doing businesses with Malaysia.

- Bernama