German president invites Yunus to Berlin

German Ambassador Dr Albrecht Conze meets with Dr Muhammad Yunus at his office in the capital Thursday. Photo: German Embassy.

German President Joachim Gauck has invited Nobel laureate and Grameen Bank founder Dr Muhammad Yunus to visit Berlin early next year.

German Ambassador to Bangladesh Dr Albrecht Conze met with Prof Yunus this morning at the latter's office and conveyed the invitation by the president, said a German Embassy statement.

The ambassador said Germany admires Yunus’s outstanding contribution to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalised people, especially women.

“It saddens me that the distinguished pioneer of microfinance and social business has not been enjoying the respect he deserves in his own country lately”, said the ambassador.

Conze also praised Yunus’s leadership in the Garments Industry Transparency Initiative (GITI) which aims at finding a consensus on appropriate procedures to regularly adjust minimum wages for garments workers as part of a global effort to deal with labour wage issues.

GITI is a joint initiative by Professor Peter Eigen, the founder of Berlin based Transparency International (TI) and Professor Yunus.

“Dr Yunus has been instrumental in shaping the GITI which attracted considerable attention in Germany. It will contribute to enhance Bangladesh’s international reputation after the negative publicity the country has received since the Rana plaza tragedy,” added Dr Conze.