{"id":57278,"date":"2015-05-28T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T07:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=006a4bbdc53f923e12a9a61518637b7d"},"modified":"2015-05-28T07:55:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T07:55:00","slug":"speech-social-business-conference-in-bangladesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=57278","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Social Business Conference in Bangladesh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Professor Yunus, Ms Shahabudin, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen<\/p>\n

It gives me great pleasure to be here today.<\/p>\n

Thank you for the opportunity to say a few words.<\/p>\n

This conference has grown over the years and become an important annual fixture in defining and promoting social business in Bangladesh and globally.<\/p>\n

I can remember a few years back when Professor Yunus kindly gave a presentation of Social Business at my residence to the British Business Group.<\/p>\n

The concept for the group was relatively new: but everyone could see and appreciate the value of it and the real change it could make in people\u2019s lives. <\/p>\n

As this conference has grown, both in size and reputation, so has the use of the model
\nAnd it is certainly needed.<\/p>\n

As the world renowned Paul Polman, CEO of the global British company Unilever says. \u201cCapitalism has served us enormously well. <\/p>\n

Yet while it has helped to reduce global poverty and expand access to health care and education, it has come at an enormous cost-<\/p>\n

It is now our duty to focus on improving the lives of the world\u2019s citizens and come up with genuine sustainable solutions.<\/p>\n

No company should be out of synch with the needs of society.<\/p>\n

Business is here to serve society. <\/p>\n

It needs to accept that social responsibility is now the expected way of doing business.<\/p>\n

Only then can we create a world that can eradicate poverty in a more sustainable and equitable way. <\/p>\n

Over the next ten years, I am sure, inspired by the thinking of Professor Yunus we are going to see many more initiatives undertaken by companies to protect the long-term interests of society. <\/p>\n

In Bangladesh, that journey has already started. <\/p>\n

There are countless harrowing stories of poverty around the country.<\/p>\n

The social business model is a way forward.<\/p>\n

Already some villages and rural communities have embraced the opportunity, especially amongst women. <\/p>\n

They have created sustainability for communities to survive and prosper.<\/p>\n

This will not only help the person but in the long term, help the country\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n

The UK Government believes strongly in the capability of the private sector to improve the prosperity and well-being of poor people. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we have designated around a quarter of a billion dollars of investment across Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia over the next ten years. <\/p>\n

This will be used to develop prosperity and sustainability through social business. <\/p>\n

It may not be a huge sum, but all it takes is a small opportunity to create a new beginning.<\/p>\n

Before I conclude could I take this opportunity to acknowledge a global partnership, whose members you will meet later on in the day. <\/p>\n

This partnership is between Grameen and a British University.<\/p>\n

Grameen UK offers microcredit loans to communities and social business entrepreneurs in the UK. <\/p>\n

Through this partnership the Glasgow Caledonian University Nursing College in Dhaka was created.<\/p>\n

Having his renowned nursing college here in Bangladesh helps deliver high quality professional nursing training to young women and themselves become world class nurses. <\/p>\n

It is one of our most exciting and transformative social businesses!<\/p>\n

I hope this day is an informative, stimulating, challenging as ever. I urge you to have that debate and look at how social business can change lives and make a better future for tomorrow. <\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British High Commissioner Robert W Gibson’s speech at Social Business Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}