In May 2025, within the halls of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in springtime Bangkok, youth representatives from over 30 countries across five continents gathered to jointly declare the 2025 Bangkok Youth Sustainability Declaration and present the 2025 Bangkok Sustainability Book.
The week-long 2025 UN-SDGs Bootcamp & Forum was not just a summit of idealism—it was a demonstration of concrete action. At the heart of this movement was Jay Wei, Chairman of the Chinese Youth Growth Foundation, the principal organiser of the event. Key partners also included the STUF United Fund, Asia Pacific Center.
Jay Wei has long devoted himself to international education and the development of youth leadership. He firmly believes, “The true competitiveness of the future lies not in rivalry, but in collaboration. Co-creation begins with trust—and trust is seeded when someone chooses altruism first.”
In an interview with《The Icons》Bangkok team, he spoke with calm conviction—his words reflecting the patience of an educator and the unwavering resolve of a changemaker.
Using Education to Cross Borders and Empower Youth as True Agents of Change
As the initiator of this United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) forum series, Jay Wei is more than an event organiser—he is a weaver of meaning and purpose. Since 2023, he has led delegations of youth, academic, and industry representatives to international platforms such as COP28 in Dubai, where he helped amplify the voices of young people within global climate conversations. In 2024, he brought this mission to Okinawa, Japan, convening youth from multiple nations to co-author the 2024 Okinawa Youth Sustainability Declaration, which was later presented at COP29.
The 2025 UN-SDGs Bootcamp & Forum in Bangkok marked a pivotal milestone in this ongoing journey. Not only did Jay Wei gather youth leaders from 30 countries for deep intercultural exchange, but he also led them in formally presenting the 2025 Bangkok Youth Sustainability Declaration and the 2025 Bangkok Sustainability Book at the UN Asia-Pacific headquarters.
“We made sure young people were not just participants, but designers; not just listeners, but voices. This kind of engagement is a truly powerful way to change the future,” he said.
Jay Wei: Global Advocacy Must Be Rooted in Altruism
“As long as we are dealing with global sustainability, it must be co-created. And co-creation is never just a slogan—it requires space, structure, and above all, the courage to trust first,” Jay Wei told《The Icons》Bangkok team. For him, engaging in international advocacy means being the first to give, to share selflessly, so that participants from different cultures and systems can begin to collaborate in an open and secure environment.
It is precisely this philosophy that enabled the forum to bring together youth from five continents, allowing them to transcend language and national boundaries and co-create meaningful policy recommendations and action plans in a short amount of time. Jay Wei firmly believes that when trust becomes the foundation, a strong and lasting international youth network can be built—this belief remains his greatest motivation for continuing the work.
Don’t Get Too Used to Telling Youth What They Should Do
Michal Andrzej Glasek, a strategy and development advisor from Poland who also took part in the forum, shared his thoughts in an interview with《The Icons》: “We’ve become too accustomed to telling young people what they should do, and often overlook the fact that they already possess tremendous creativity and problem-solving potential.”
Glasek explained that he wasn’t originally from an education background, but his experience at the 2024 youth forum in Okinawa deeply inspired him. “A profound conversation with Japanese students changed my perspective. It made me reflect on how business leaders can respond to the call of our times—not only by creating value, but by becoming enablers who amplify the impact of others,” he said.
The defining keyword of the 2025 Bangkok Sustainability Book: Trust
Kimanzi Margaret Wanjiru, one of the lead editors of the 2025 Bangkok Sustainability Book and a youth representative from Kenya, shared candidly in an interview with《The Icons》 that when the team was first tasked with writing the “Sustainability Book,” they were overwhelmed and unsure.
“None of us had ever written a book. We didn’t even know what a real ‘solution’ looked like,” she said. But it was precisely this uncertainty that made the process so genuine and moving.
“Every time we gathered to discuss, teammates from different countries brought in different perspectives. We inspired each other, challenged each other, and even redefined what counts as a problem—and what counts as action. In the end, we learned that real impact doesn’t come from massive resources, but from honest connection and the belief that we can create change.”
“If you ask me what the most important word is,” Kimanzi said,
“It’s trust.”
The ASEAN Sustainability Impact Accelerator: Guiding More Global Youth Leaders into the International Innovation Ecosystem
This year’s forum also planted the seeds for the next stage of development—Southeast Bangkok University will partner with the Chinese Youth Growth Foundation to establish the SDGs Impact Accelerator, a platform designed to support innovation and incubation for young leaders across ASEAN and neighbouring countries.
In an interview with《The Icons》Bangkok team, Dr. Pattarada Rungruang, Vice President of Southeast Bangkok University, shared: “From early childhood education to doctoral programs, we offer a comprehensive system, along with the capacity to connect youth communities across Southeast Asia—including Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Through our research centres and innovation-focused curriculum, we will work alongside the Chinese Youth Growth Foundation to support new-generation leaders who have ideas but lack opportunities. Our goal is to bring more young people into the global innovation ecosystem and turn regional-to-global collaboration into real momentum.”
A Continuous Journey: From the Arab World, Japan, Thailand, and New York to Brazil
Jay Wei firmly believes that the ultimate mission of education is to cultivate citizens who can co-create, not individuals who simply compete. “Gen Z is not a future possibility—they are the answer for now. They must be able to challenge the status quo, but more importantly, to take action,” he says.
Since leading a group of international youth leaders to participate in COP28 in Dubai, Jay Wei has envisioned a new model for international education—one that blends forums, real-world missions, and cross-cultural dialogue. In this model, students are no longer passive recipients of knowledge in classrooms; they are active participants on the ground, engaging with global issues, joining policy discussions, and even offering their own solutions. From Dubai to Okinawa to Bangkok, he has steadily transformed this vision into a global movement. The next stop: Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
Jack Huang, Youth Impact Chair of the forum and advisor to the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology, echoed this vision. “Young people should not only be advocates—they must also become curators of action,” he stated. “Following the Nairobi forum, we will expand this momentum with a dedicated youth dialogue session during the UN General Assembly in New York this September.”
Harry Hsu, CEO of《The Icons》, also confirmed that the forums will continue to evolve. “Later this year, at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, we will support the release of a climate solutions declaration led by youth from the Global South,” he shared.
When the World Needs Rebuilding, Education Must Be Redefined
“In July 2025, our team will return to Nairobi, Kenya to host the next UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Bootcamp and a 30-nation youth forum,” Jay Wei announced. “We’re inviting over 50 youth representatives from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, and we plan to present the 2025 Nairobi Youth Sustainability Declaration and the 2025 Nairobi Sustainability Book at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme. This effort aims to expand the global impact of our co-creation movement.”
“When the world needs rebuilding, education must be redefined.”
Jay Wei is not one for slogans—he believes in steady, grounded work. For him, education is not a campaign; it’s a long-term commitment to action. Rather than waiting for the world to change, he walks ahead into uncertainty, quietly gathering like-minded allies to light the way.
“We can’t afford to wait for change—we must actively create it. I believe that empowering youth to become bridges between worlds is deeply meaningful. It sparks new possibilities and makes global transformation truly achievable.”
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