DHAKA: Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus continued his week in New York addressing the special session on Haiti at the Clinton Global Initiative participated by President Clinton, Laurent Lamothe, Prime Minister of Haiti.

Professor Yunus is a member of Presidential Advisory Council of Haiti which is created to advice Haiti`s President Martelly on economic and social affairs of Haiti. Through his Global Initiatives arm “Yunus Social Business”, Professor Yunus has launched eight social business projects in Haiti. Ten more are in the pipeline waiting to complete the final preparations for launching.

An agreement was signed at the conference between Professor Yunus and the Minister of agriculture of Haiti allocating 10,000 hectares of Government land to the Yunus Social business for using in reforesting of Haiti.

Also Haiti Social Business Fund, founded by Professor Yunus signed an agreement with Deutsche Bank to receive a loan of one million dollar. This adds to the existing 5 million dollars that the Fund has for investment in new social businesses in Haiti.

Two very large Haiti social business projects are joint ventures with giant multinational companies. One is on reforesting the whole of Haiti which lost virtually all its forest coverage in the last couple of decades.

Richard Branson through Virgin United and Clinton Foundation together with Haiti Social Business Fund have agreed to form a joint venture to accomplish this goal. Another large joint venture is shaping up with Brazil Foods (BR Foods) which will produce poultry and create country-wide employment for rural population of Haiti. President Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe are actively supporting the social business initiatives in Haiti.

Professor Yunus was honoured by the Prime Minister of Albania at gala dinner where the Prime Minister Edi Rama presented Professor Yunus the Lifetime achievement Award and praised his contribution in helping overcome poverty in in Albania and Kosovo. The gala dinner was organized by National Albanian American Association attended by President of Albania, Prime Minister of Albania, Prime minister of Kosovo, Prime minister of

Macedonia, cabinet members of Albania and Kosovo, several US congressmen, business leaders of Albanian American community in the USA were on the sidelines of the UN meeting.

Yunus Social Business has been working in Albania for last three years and a series of social businesses in Albania with the direct support of the Albanian government in a major employment generation initiative in that country.

Professor Yunus has been running Grameen Kosovo since 1990n immediately after the cease fire agreement was signed and kosovo became a UN administered territory. Professor Yunus gave the keynote address at the dinner elaborating his experience in Albania and Kosovo.

Professor Yunus is scheduled to address the Global Citizen Festival in the Central Lawn of Central Park on 28 September, a big event to be attended by 50,000 young people to end extreme poverty before he leaves for New Hampshire to attend state wide Social Business Competition in that state.

BDST: 1958 HRS, SEP 28, 2013
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