Otto Group and Grameen Partneron Social Busines

Dr. Michael Otto, Chairman of the Otto Group, the world's largest mail order company, signed an agreement with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Executive Trustee, Grameen Trust, to begin a joint venture in the field of textiles in Bangladesh.

The Otto Group is a leading family-owned international trading and services corporation, led by Dr. Otto, whose 123 major companies and 50,000 employees in 20 countries do business in a worldwide network. The Otto Group is the largest mail order company in the world and second only to Amazon to have the largest online marketing in the world.

The Otto Group will invest in a joint venture business with Grameen Trust in Bangladesh. Grameen and the Otto Group will jointly set up the Grameen Otto Trust and the Grameen Otto Textile Company. The Grameen Otto Textile Company will set up a factory in Bangladesh to produce ready made garments for the international market under socially and ecologically sustainable conditions. Under the principles of social business, as developed by Professor Yunus, investors cannot receive any profit beyond recouping the actual investment.

All profits from this joint venture textile business will be used exclusively for reinvestment in the factory in order to provide modern technologies and humane working conditions. All other profits will go towards a new created foundation Grameen Otto Trust, which will undertake social programs to take care of the healthcare, nutrition, and educational needs of the factory's employees and economically underprivileged families in the wider community. It is also the stated aim to apply the highest ecological standards in production. It will be the first social business partnership in the textile business of its kind.

The Otto Group is committed towards setting up more factories in Bangladesh, based on the success of the first factory, and also towards promoting this new social business model in countries in Africa.

This joint venture agreement was signed at the headquarters of Otto Group in Hamburg on November 11, 2009, towards the end of Professor Muhammad Yunus' visit to several cities of Germany to attend among others the 20th Anniversary celebrations of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Nobel Peace Laureate's Summit, the Vision Summit and the Social Business Summit.

http://www.muhammadyunus.org/Yunus-Centre-Highlights/leading-german-business-magnate-signs-joint-venture-agreement-with-grameen-to-invest-in-bangladesh/

Paris EUROPLACEFinancial Forum

Paris EUROPLACE organized an International Financial Forum under the theme "The Aftermath of the Crisis: Times of Dialogue and Opportunities" on July 2 - 3, 2009 in Paris. It focused on the aftermaths of the financial crisis that originated in the U.S.A. in 2007, the necessity for the financial industry to meet the needs of the real economy and rethink about the regulatory framework. The event gathered a high level audience of representatives of the financial communities including investors, intermediaries, banks and financial institutions from European, Asian and North American countries.

The forum offered four roundtable discussions on "Post G20: Milestones to Restore Confidence within Financial Markets", "International Crisis and New Challenges of Sustainable Growth: Ongoing Partnerships with Internationals Financial Services Centers", "New Recommendations for Sustainable Finance" and "Redirecting Savings to Support Real Economy and Finance Projects of the Future". Financial experts from different parts of the world actively participated in the discussion and shared their views on mitigating the occurrence of future crises, the role of policies and international monetary system on the backdrop of financial crisis, lessons learned from the financial crisis, emerging contours of financial regulation, managing risk and other important issues with the audience.

Professor H.I.Latifee, Managing Director, Grameen Trust in his speech on "New Recommendations for Sustainable Finance" emphasized on the need for the development of inclusive and sustainable financial system. He explained the contribution of microfinance in financial inclusion and said that microfinance should to be integrated into the mainstream finance in order to reach those, who are excluded.

Report by : Senti Chakma