Social business a silver lining, says Yunus

• Miscellaneous
• 18th March 2010
• YC

Star Business Report

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus says social business is the best tool to address social needs and create much-needed employment.

“I see many exciting opportunities, mainly employment, in social businesses,” Yunus told a workshop on creating awareness among university students on social business at Yunus Centre in Mirpur yesterday.

The microcredit pioneer criticised economists for not including social business in their theories.

“Social consciousness-driven theory is totally missing in economics. A profit maximisation attitude cannot solve the problems,” he said. “The entire economic theory is based on selfishness.”

Yunus said profit-making business cannot create employment, but social businesses can.

Yunus told the students that every individual could do social business and fund arrangement would be no problem.

Encouraging the students, he said: “If you can solve the problems of five people, you hit the jackpot."

The Nobel laureate has said the government alone cannot solve all public problems because it is a slow-moving machine and not innovative. “Individuals are far more dynamic and innovative."

Yunus said Grameen Bank has created a series of social business enterprises to support the poor with nutrition, health and education services.

Some 60 students from home and abroad participated in the workshop. Lamiya Morshed, executive director of Yunus Centre, also spoke.

Yunus Centre, the hub of Grameen's social business, has organised the workshop, 'the second Yunus Centre Forum'.

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