Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar called for more youth participation in politics to better shape government policies.

Admitting that this was his biggest concern, Khairy Jamaluddin who is also UMNO Youth chief, said Malaysian youths should have a stake in the development of the country.

"Young people, aged 18 to 30, now make up 25 per cent of the world's population of 1.8 billion, the highest ever recorded. Now if we include those up to 40 years old, the group grows by almost 10 per cent more than in the 1970s.

"By this sheer volume, it is the young people that dictate the economy, the markets and future trends."

Khairy Jamaluddin said this when addressing about 2,000 young Malaysians at the closing of the National Aspiration & Leadership Symposium (NALS) 2016, at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), here on Sunday.

He said although young people shaped the economy, government policies, housing, education, immigration, all over the world society was not in favour of youths because they did not vote or did not participate in the political process.

"Politics is the most important aspect to move Malaysia towards structural reform to achieve a high-income and high-knowledge nation status," he stressed.

He said the reason behind the unfriendly government policies towards young people who represented the big "demographic vault", was because young people had not exercised the political power that they had.

"Our latest Malaysian youth index showed that the lowest score amongst 12 indicators was political involvement, which stood at 46 per cent. The young people scored high in all other indicators, which basically means our young people are not interested in politics.

"You have distrust in the political system. You feel that politics cannot change anything and you've seen it all, you've heard it all. Nothing really changes. That's why you guys have to be interested in politics," he added.

NALS was founded in 2013 and has become an annual event that gathers student leaders from universities all over Malaysia as well as overseas universities to engage in a dialogue with Malaysia's distinguished figures, ranging from leaders of the government, from the private sector and civil society, as well as youth leaders.