Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus on Friday stated that transformative power of social business could make real and lasting positive changes to create ‘a beautiful and better world’ for everyone, not just for Bangladesh.
The Nobel laureate said that social business was the only right way to ensure healthcare for everyone in the world and through this, it was quite possible to address the challenges of the healthcare sector.
He was speaking at inaugural session of the 15th Social Business Day at Samajik Convention Centre at Zirabo, Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka.
The theme for this year is ‘Social Business is the Most Effective Way to Ensure Healthcare for All.’
At the two-day event, jointly organised by Yunus Centre and the Grameen Group, more than 1,400 participants from 38 countries attended.
‘The picture of the world is gloomy, for no fault of ours. We are not responsible for creating this gloomy world. We want to create a beautiful world and we can do that,’ the chief adviser said.
Advisers to the interim government, senior government officials and diplomats stationed in Dhaka were present on the occasion.
The event aimed to be a global convergence of knowledge, experience, and innovation, seeking ways to address inequalities and limitations across healthcare and other sectors to build a sustainable, just and humane world.
In his speech, former World Bank vice-president Ismail Serageldin said, ‘We can build a better world guided by vision, where the people’s greatness is measured by the quality of the lives of the poorest citizens, not by the size of their armies or the scale of their buildings,’ he said.
He also said that everyone should envision a caring society where future generations remember the forgotten, give hope to the forlorn, include the excluded and reach out to the unreachable, leaving behind, through their actions, foundations for a better version of themselves.
Gywn Lewis, UN resident coordinator of Bangladesh, said, ‘This year’s theme of Social Business Day is related to ensuring healthcare for all, which is not only timely, also essential.’
She noted that Bangladesh had made significant progress in reducing maternal and child mortality by expanding immunisation services and increasing access to primary care for more people.
However, healthcare inequality persists as one of the defining challenges, she added.
She said that social business was not a concept of the future, but that it was a solution for today.
‘The UN stands alongside these efforts around the world. To choose equity, we should invest in innovation that is recognised as social business to universally ensure affordable and just healthcare,’ she added.
At the opening plenary session, Thomas Bach, honorary president of the International Olympic Committee, Mitsuru Izumo, founder and president of Euglena Co Limited, and other prominent leaders from the country and abroad also spoke.
Zeenat Islam, relations manager of Yunus Centre, and Md Ashraful Hassan, chairman of Grameen Group, delivered welcome remarks.
The event features a marketplace, where 28 social business enterprises from Grameen Group and 26 social business entrepreneurs participated.
Ronzina Akter, a hair business entrepreneur from Dinajpur with an annual turnover of Tk 7-8 lakh, participated in the event.
She told New Age that she came to the event to seek potential Chinese buyers for her hair items, including custom-designed hairpieces and hair caps.
Another entrepreneur, Morium Akter Ety, supplies shell jewellery and other items to tourist destinations.
She said that her annual turnover was around Tk 10 lakh and she joined the programme to attract potential domestic buyers.
Foijul, an entrepreneur from Thakurgaon, sells classified jute items and earns approximately Tk 6-8 lakh per year.
He said that he started his business with the help of Grameen Trust and expressed hope for gradual business growth.
Nishat Tasneen, a manager at an upcoming payment service provider Shamadhan Services Limited, stated that the platform, Shamadhan Services, would be launched soon and it would offer e-wallet or cashless digital wallet services in the country.