Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus US' Visit- Yunus Centre Press Release

Press Release
Yunus Centre

â€œYoung people are capable of doing much more today than ever in the history of mankindâ€, says Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus speaks at 2012 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting Breakfast Panel in New York on September 22, 2012. The other panelists were Hikmet Ersek, SVP, Social Ventures, Western Union, Rana Foroohar, Assistant Managing Editor, TIME Magazine, Susy Cheston of ACCION International, Annie Duflo of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), and Paul Foster, CMO of Western Union Business Solutions.

Nobel Laureate Professor Yunus is currently in the US attending as Chief Guest of social business conferences in three US states, organized by the state-wide university system in those states.

On Thursday, Professor Yunus attended as chief guest the social business conference at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. President Tom Ross, President of the state university system of North Carolina , consisting of 17 universities, personally conducted the day-long social business conference. All chancellors from 17 public universities, 17 provosts, 31 competing student teams participated in the day-long conference. Each student team contesting in the competition consisted of about 10 students. State-wide competition was tense and many good social business ideas emerged from the competition. From among the thirty-one competing student teams of the entire North Carolina state university system, nine teams qualified for the final round, and three projects were selected as finalists.

President Ross promised to cover the costs of students from the winning team to attend the â€˜Global Social Business Summit 2012â€™ to be held in Vienna, Austria in November.

At the event, North Carolina Secretary of Commerce spoke of the need for Social Businesses in North Carolina to solve many economic problems of the people. President Ross announced his commitment to make â€˜Social Business Design Competitionâ€™ an annual event for the entire public university system of North Carolina. He also announced that a Social Business Fund will be created in the state to support the excellent project proposals emerging from the competition.

Earlier on his visit, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus addressed at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting Breakfast Panel in New York moderated by TIME magazineâ€™s Rana Foroohar. Professor Yunus stressed on moving towards inclusive banking system through microcredit, and the urgent need to empower women in local communities to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Nobel Laureate Professor Yunus Muhammad Yunus received Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe of Haiti, in his hotel room, on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meetings to discuss the launch of social businesses addressed to agriculture and reforestation in the earthquake affected country.

During the UN Week Professor Yunus, who is a member of the Broadband Commission, was a keynote speaker at the ITU Broadband Commission meeting at the launching ceremony roundtable discussion of â€˜The Sustainable Development Solutions Networkâ€™ (SDSN). He insisted that broadband connectivity should be available to all people free of cost, as it has become so fundamental to human life that it could be compared to air for breathing, in terms of the need for its availability. He stated that the future of the world will depend on how quickly we make broadband connectivity available to all people.

He addressed the Social Good Summit 2012 organized by the UN Foundation. He emphasized on the role of young people in solving society's problems, as the youth of today are capable of doing much than ever in the history of mankind using existing technology to positively disrupting the norm.

On Monday, Professor Yunus had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Haiti Mr. Laurent Lamothe and discussed about Prof Yunus' upcoming trip to Haiti in mid-October when he is scheduled to inaugurate several social business companies working in agriculture and reforestation. He proposed to the Prime Minister to facilitate social business in Haiti to bring the country under total forest coverage. Deforestation has led to forest coverage of merely 2% in Haiti today.

Professor Yunus is currently in Washington DC for social business conference organized by state-wide university programs in Virginia and will be travelling next to Oregon as the chief guest of social business conference in that State.