Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus addressed the opening ceremony of the 17th Micro-credit Summit held from September 3-5 in Merida, Mexico.
Along with the Mexican Minister of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal and Yucatan Governor Rolando Rodrigo Zapata Bello, Dr Yunus inaugurated the session. Attended by 900 delegates from 75 countries, the summit discussed how to cultivate the next generation of financial leaders who can use new tools of connectivity and measurement to reach those who have been left out by the current financial system.
With the theme “Generation Next: Innovations in Micro-finance,” the summit also discussed the role of government, commercial business, social business and civil society to address the needs of the poor and vulnerable.
Professor Yunus addressed a plenary session on “Reaching the Excluded” and chaired two panels, “Micro-finance as Social Business” and “Turning Unemployment into Entrepreneurship” on youth unemployment.
Yucatan Governor Rolando Rodrigo Zapata Bello appointed the Bangladeshi Nobel laureate as his honourary economic adviser and invited him to the Global Mayan conference to be held in October in Yucatan.
During the Summit, Yunus met with the executive director and other managers of the Arab Gulf Programme for Development.
