CHITTAGONG, 16 October 2006 — Nobel Peace laureate and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus vowed to make poverty history as he unveiled new plans to transform the fortunes of Bangladesh’s poor.

“I think it’s quite possible to eradicate poverty from this world. I think we can halve the poverty level in Bangladesh by 2015. And in the next 15 years we can rid this land of it,” Yunus said at the weekend after he was named the country’s first ever Nobel winner.

Yunus and his Grameen Bank, which offers tiny loans to very poor borrowers to help them become self-employed, were jointly awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The bank, which targets women because it believes they are better than men at running family finances, has given small loans to more than 6.6 million people since its inception in 1976.

“You change the environment, and we will lift thousands and millions of people out of poverty. They don’t need any grant to change their life. People have this power in them. You remove the lid of the hidden power and poor people will automatically change their lives,” said Yunus, known as the “Banker to the Poor.”

Yunus has unveiled a string of new initiatives - including health insurance for the poor, as well as information technology, solar energy and organic fertilizer projects.

And yesterday the former economics professor flew to the southern port city of Chittagong to pay tribute to the women of nearby Jobra village where he started his pioneering scheme.

“I’ve come here to say thanks to the people of Chittagong, especially the women of Jobra village, who showed that micro-credit could indeed eradicate poverty,” Yunus told a reception in Chittagong city.

Yunus also made an impassioned appeal to the country’s politicians to reach a consensus on election reforms in a bid to pave the way for free and fair general polls in January.

“The whole world is looking at us after the Nobel prize. It’s now perfect time for the two major parties to reach a consensus so that we have a smooth election,” he said.

“I urge them to settle the dispute in a single sitting and happily inform the people that they’ve agreed to participate in the elections,” he said.

Bangladesh’s main opposition Awami League and its 13 leftist allies have threatened to boycott polls unless the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) removes “pro-government” election officials and agrees to reforms. Across Bangladesh at the weekend, people expressed their pride and delight at the award.

In the village of Hathazari near Chittagong, around 500 people took to the streets in a celebratory procession, according to the ATN Bangla television network.

At Singair in the central Manikganj district, the channel showed more than 30,000 people beating drums and chanting “Light the lamp of Yunus at every home” as they marched through the town.

Borrowers also paid tribute to the economist whose unique micro-credit system has been replicated in more than 40 countries.

“Grameen Bank has changed a dirt-poor woman like me into a small businesswoman with a home and good livelihood,” said 32-year-old Margina, from the northern Mymensingh district, who took out her first loan to buy a cow 12 years ago and now runs a thriving rice business with her once jobless husband.

“The difference between my life now and then is like the difference between day and night. I don’t have words to say how happy I am that Muhammad Yunus has won this prize,” she said.

Grameen Bank began life as a pilot project when Yunus was a professor of rural economics at Chittagong University.

The project set out to prove that lending to the poorest in society was not an “impossible proposition” and to break the cycle of poverty created by middlemen and moneylenders.

Zidane to Open Food Plant

French football star Zinedine Zidane is set to visit Bangladesh next month at the invitation of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to open a new food manufacturing project.

The World Cup Golden Boot winner will be in the country from Nov. 7-8 to unveil the Grameen Danone Food Factory, a joint venture between Grameen Bank and French food giant Danone, the bank’s general manager Nurjahan Begum said.

Danone and Grameen Bank have a 50 percent stake each in the one million dollar plant being set up in the northern city of Bogra. The project is aimed at producing food products targeted at millions of low-income people.

The partnership is also aimed at eventually setting up 50 factories in rural areas of Bangladesh with a total investment of at least 50 million dollars.

Danone is the world’s biggest producer of fresh dairy products and bottled water with total sales of around $16 billion in 2005. Half of Danone’s 200 factories and 89,500 employees are located in Asia.