Kazakhstan ready to set up Grameen Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is ready to set up ‘Grameen Kazakhstan’ following the model of ‘Grameen America’ as a joint venture with Yunus Centre, Minister of Presidential Affairs and former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakhytzhan Sagintayev told Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus during a discussion session held recently at the minister’s office.

‘Grameen Kazakhstan’ will be microfinance bank with banking license to provide financial services particularly to women and youth for supporting entrepreneurship, said a Yunus Centre release.

A delegation will be sent to Social Business Day which is going to be held in Bangkok on June 28-29, and to Dhaka, to work out the details of setting up of Grameen Kazakhstan, the Kazakh minister said.

He told Yunus that he would encourage leading universities in Kazakhstan to set up Yunus Social Business Centres to introduce academic courses on theory and practice of social business.

Yunus was invited by the Prime minister of Kazakhstan to attend Astana Economic Forum, a premier conference that attracts government and business leaders from around the world.

During his visit, he had a session with Kazakh prime minister who wanted to know Yunus’s view on poverty alleviation strategy for Kazakhstan.