Political Quotes

“I want to take a moment to speak about troubling actions by the Government of Bangladesh against the Grameen Bank. Founded in 1983 by Professor Mohammed Yunus, the Grameen Bank has been a model of the immense potential of microfinance for economic development. By providing small loans to the world's poorest people who possess the skills but not the financing needed to start a small business, microcredit institutions have shown to be successful in promoting the most effective means of poverty reduction, the empowerment of women. The Grameen Bank, about which volumes have been written, has been a leading example of these successful borrower-owned banks, and the model has spread from Bangladesh throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. The proposal of the Government of Bangladesh to dissolve the Grameen Bank into 19 separate entities would curtail one of the best mechanisms for reducing poverty in Bangladesh. This radical restructuring would fragment Grameeen's governance structure, essentially rendering it powerless. It would move ownership of the bank from the people with a vested interest in its success to an assortment of agencies with no legal relationships with the public. The force behind the efforts to weaken the Grameen Bank is none other than Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has clashed with Professor Yunus since the latter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and expressed interest in running for public office himself.…”