The two-day Global Social Business Summit 2014 has concluded in Mexico City with a call to fight social and economic problems through social business, reports UNB.
Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus inaugurated the summit on November 27 at Expo Bancomer convention centre in Mexico City, said a Yunus Centre press release yesterday.
Prof Yunus presented a keynote speech highlighting the need for new ways to think about changing the world that ‘change will come about through small actions, and repeating those actions to reach scale’.
He said the Business Summit was an opportunity for sharing the experiences of all exciting social business that are developing around the world to energise each other.
Minister of Economy of Mexico Ildefonso Guajardo delivered a keynote speech highlighting the importance that microcredit and social business can play in Mexico, reiterating his government’s commitment to building social business in the country.
The Summit, which was organised by Grameen Creative Lab, Green Street of Mexico and Yunus Centre, opened with 720 people from 50 countries to talk about how social business, a non-dividend company, to solve human problems and can tackle some of the pressing social problems of the day.
Several important announcements were made during the Summit, including an announcement of $ 5 million for social business from USAID for Haiti, Albania and Uganda. There was announcement on the creation of a Yunus Social Business Incubator Fund in Veracruz, Mexico with the support of the Veracruz government.
Besides, CEMEX, a leading international cement company, announced a social business in housing in Mexico.
Following the Summit, Prof Yunus delivered a public lecture to a packed audience of 1,500 people, mostly young Mexicans, at the Expo Bancomer.