Yunus: youth can do more than ever

Left, Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus receives Prime Minister of Haiti Laurent Lamothe in his hotel room, on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meetings to discuss the launch of social business for agriculture and reforestation in the earthquake-affected country. Photo: Yunus Centre

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus emphasised the role of young people in solving social problems, as the youth are capable of doing much than ever in the history of mankind using existing technology.
He addressed the Social Good Summit 2012 organised by the UN Foundation from September 22-24 in New York.
Prof Yunus is currently in the US attending social business conferences in three US states, organised by a state-wide university system in those states.
He is the chief guest of the conferences, said a statement.
On Thursday, Prof Yunus attended the social business conference at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Tom Ross, president of the state university system of North Carolina, consisting of 17 universities, conducted the daylong conference.
All chancellors from 17 public universities, 17 provosts, and 31 competing student teams participated in the conference.
Each student team consisted of about 10 students. State-wide competition was tense and many good social business ideas emerged from the competition, said the statement.
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 "Global Social Business Summit 2012" to be held in Vienna, Austria in November.
At the event, North Carolina Secretary of Commerce spoke on the need for social businesses in North Carolina to solve many economic problems.
Ross announced his commitment to make "Social Business Design Competition" an annual event for the entire public university system of North Carolina.
He also said a social business fund will be created in the state to support the excellent project proposals emerging from the competition.
Earlier on his visit, Dr Yunus addressed the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting's breakfast panel in New York moderated by TIME magazine's Rana Foroohar.
Prof Yunus stressed moving towards an inclusive banking system through microcredit, and the urgent need to empower women in local communities to lift them and their families out of poverty.
During the UN Week, Prof Yunus, who is a member of the Broadband Commission, was a keynote speaker at the ITU Broadband Commission meeting at the launching ceremony discussion.
He said 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 also said, "The future of the world will depend on how quickly we make broadband connectivity available to all people."
On Monday, Prof Yunus had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Haiti Laurent Lamothe and discussed about his upcoming trip to Haiti in mid-October.
During his visit to Haiti, Dr Yunus 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 percent in Haiti now.
Dr Yunus is currently in Washington DC to attend a social business conference organised by state-wide university programs in Virginia and will be travelling next to Oregon as the chief guest of another social business conference in that state.