Grameen Bank
UK minister for protecting its integrity
Alistair Burt, UK Foreign Office Minister for South Asia, has emphasised protecting the integrity and efficiency of the Nobel-winning Grameen Bank.
“We strongly support the stunning work of Grameen Bank in lifting the very poor out of poverty,” he has said, adding the integrity and efficiency of Grameen Bank should be protected so it can continue its work.
Burt has admired the bank’s former managing director Prof Muhammad Yunus for what he has been doing as a micro-credit pioneer and said his legacy should be protected and upheld, according to a statement issued by the British High Commission yesterday.
The British minister, prior to concluding his three-day visit to Bangladesh, met Yunus at the UK High Commissioner’s residence in the capital on Wednesday.
Yunus, who along with Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, expressed deep concern over the future of the bank following the formation of a four-member commission to review the activities of the bank and its 54 associated organisations.
The government constituted the commission on May 16 to make recommendations on how to run the organisations in future.
“I can see clearly that the future of Grameen Bank will be at stake if the government increases its role in the bank’s management by amending the legal structure,” Yunus said in an open letter to the citizens of the nation on Wednesday.
In the letter, Yunus questioned the necessity of forming a probe commission to look into Grameen Bank’s activities since its inception.
The Nobel laureate stressed the need for maintaining the existing law, management structure and work policy through which Grameen Bank had become one of the renowned organisations around the world.
-With The Daily Star input
