Yunus case could hit ties, US warns Bangladesh

[asif86]

AFP: Yunus case could hit ties, US warns Bangladesh


Yunus case could hit ties, US warns Bangladesh
(AFP) – 14 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The United States warned anew Tuesday that Bangladesh's row with microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus could hurt growing ties, after the Nobel laureate lost a final appeal against his dismissal.

Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said the United States had a "strong interest in maintaining close relations" with Bangladesh, which he called "a democratic and moderate Muslim country."

But he said he raised concerns during a visit last month to Dhaka over the treatment of Yunus, who was removed from the helm of Grameen Bank after a feud with the government.

"I warned that a failure to find a compromise that respects Dr. Yunus's global stature and maintains the integrity and effectiveness of Grameen could affect our bilateral relations," Blake told a congressional hearing.

Yunus pioneered microfinance, in which Grameen bank has offered small loans to some 24,000 people -- the vast majority of them women living in rural villages who would rarely have access to traditional banks.

While his work won him the Nobel Peace Prize, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year accused him of "sucking blood from the poor" and pulling a financial "trick" to avoid paying tax.

Many of Yunus's supporters in Bangladesh and overseas believe he is being targeted by the government after he flirted with running for politics in the deeply polarized nation.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Include Bangladesh into G20: Yunus to Sarkozy

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has urged France to reform the G20 for including developing countries like Bangladesh, as the global economic system is too narrow in the present framework.


On March 25 this year, the Grameen Bank founder wrote a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, also requesting him to give more voices to developing countries, as the economic system has been the main reason for widely creeping poverty in many countries.


Dr Yunus has been promoting the possibility of including developing countries like Bangladesh in the group that collectively produces 85 percent of global gross national product, controls 80 percent of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and homes two-thirds of the world population.


In his letter to the French President, the microfinance pioneer voiced his strong concern for reforming the global economic system.


He argued that developing countries should commit to take control of their own future. Through this initiative, developing countries like Bangladesh would be able to contribute directly to the G25 initiatives.


Last year Prof Yunus had a discussion with the French President regarding enhancing the G20 to G25, by including five low-income and developing countries in the group to enable them to propose concrete, visible steps towards a broader approach to economic governance of global issues.


Bangladesh will be part of the specific events France organises as the incumbent chair of G20, said Sarkozy on Tuesday, in response to Yunus’s proposal that his country should be included in the influential group.


As for including Bangladesh in G25, President Sarkozy wrote to Yunus: “Regarding your country, which you are warmly advocating for, we are considering, together with other developing nations, to make Bangladesh part of specific events organised by the French Presidency of G20, even if we cannot extend an invitation to Cannes.”

Sarkozy has offered a three-pronged agenda for France's G20 presidency. This includes tackling volatility in commodity prices, exploring changes to the world monetary system and reforming global economic governance.


He welcomed Yunus’s proposal to enlarge the composition of the Group to allow developing countries to participate. He has also invited the Grameen Bank founder to further discuss these issues and to further enhance the initiative on the issue of poverty and exclusion.


Sarkozy wrote that he was counting on the support of Prof Yunus to progress the work of the G20 in two directions which, as much as Prof Yunus, Sarkozy considers necessary: economic development on one side, and the social aspects of globalisation, on the other.


The French President praised Grameen Bank, which has ensured access to credit for poor people of Bangladesh. “Please allow me to reiterate, once again, how much your model of a "social business" bank, which has enabled poor people in your country to widely access credit, is admired and respected in France,” wrote Sarkozy.


He added: “The world needs innovative projects to fight poverty and inequalities, and the creation of Grameen Bank was an audacious initiative, which has been a source of inspiration for the international community.”

The G20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies: 19 countries plus the European Union, which is represented by the president of the European Council and by the European Central Bank.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig....php?nid=29241