Italian city confers citizenship on Yunus
Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has been conferred honorary citizenship of Pistoia, a city in the Tuscany region of Italy.
He was honoured at a programme in the Town Hall yesterday, Yunus Centre said in a statement.
The event was attended by 300 dignitaries of Pistoia, including government officials, business leaders, heads of foundations, university representatives and social entrepreneurs.
Samuele Bertinelli, the mayor of Pistoia, said the city was conferring the honorary citizenship for the Nobel laureate’s services to humanity through the creation of microcredit and social business.
Professor Yunus thanked the mayor and the city for conferring on him the honorary citizenship.
He said people had the capability of changing their own lives given the opportunity.
Young people should be provided with a chance to become entrepreneurs, not to chase after jobs, Yunus said.
He also talked about the new entrepreneurs programme introduced in Bangladesh which has provided equity capital to 5,000 young people for create business.
Yunus also invited Pistoia to start programmes to turn its unemployed youth into entrepreneurs, according to the statement. About 35 percent of the Italian youth are unemployed.
Pistoia is famous for building and export of train compartments, producing paper and pasta molds and for supplying nursery plants throughout Europe.
Pistoia became a social business city in 2013. A special association called Social Business Lab Pistoia supported by the two largest foundations in Pistoia has been created to take the programme forward.
After the ceremony, Yunus visited two social businesses and addressed a gathering of 200 high-school students who had participated in a citywide social business competition.
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