Work on the Youth Mobility Index (YMI.Asia) began with one premise: to better support young Asians who are setting out to change the world. This year, the DotAsia Organisation is celebrating our 10 year anniversary of launching the .Asia global Top-Level-Domain. To commemorate the first decade of .Asia, and building on our dedication and knowledge in supporting youth engagement and development in the region, a special taskforce was commissioned to look into an initiative that could become a beacon for DotAsia into the future.
Technology, especially with the convergent and viral force of the Internet, has accelerated not only the speed of communications, but with it, the ferocity of outbound and inbound travel for work, study and leisure. What was seen as transient before, is now seen as a choice: people choose to move and remain mobile.
It is our hope that YMI.Asia can help young entrepreneurs make informed decisions as where they might go to kickstart their idea, or for students to consider where to go for university and where to aim for landing their first job. Increasingly, millennials are redefining value systems and breaking free. The youth are investing more into life experiences: travel, adventures, knowledge and starting social enterprises than amassment of property. Remaining mobile financially and geographically is replacing home ownership as a sign of success.
Driven by an Asia-wide vision, the YMI framework hopes to provide a robust set of tools to measure, understand and cultivate mobility relevant for the younger generation, and to further enhance regional collaboration, inform government policies and influence corporate behaviours to support mobility as a competitive advantage shared across Asia in a brain-sharing paradigm.
At DotAsia, we believe the attractiveness of the .Asia domain is built on the attractiveness of the region for business and for social development and the mobility of young Asians to make a difference for Asia. The fruition of YMI ties back into the success of .Asia, reinforcing regional collaboration.
For details: http://www.ymi.asia
