Yunus hails UK parliament

FE Team | Published: November 25, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Prof Dr Muhammed Yunus said millions of people in the UK and around the world face unprecedented economic uncertainty and growing social problems.
He said: "We in Bangladesh have been trying to solve these problems by creating sustainable non-dividend social business companies."
He was addressing at the celebration of fourth anniversary of social enterprise UK as the chief guest held at the British Parliament building recently to celebrate the occasion of Social Enterprise Day, said a statement.
Dr Yunus said: "The UK parliament is encouraging citizens to buy products produced by social enterprises, by becoming a 'buy social' institution itself. The Houses of Parliament are creating an example for others, recognising the positive difference they can make to people and planet, simply by buying goods and services from businesses with a social mission."
This type of forward-thinking among leading organisations about how they can change their own behaviour is vitally important. I hope that many more governments, businesses, institutions and charities will follow suit, he added.
Nobel laureate Prof Yunus also congratulated the Houses of Parliament for their support for social enterprises.
The celebration was jointly hosted by Speaker of the House of Commons Rt Hon John Bercow, MP, and Speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness D'Souza.
Social enterprise delegates from China, Canada, India, Hong Kong, Nigeria, the UK, the USA and many other countries numbering 150 delegates and senior officials from British government and British social enterprises attended the celebration - showing their commitment to help grow the number of businesses and public bodies buying from Britain's social enterprises.