The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

Nobel lautreate Professor Muhamamd Yunus and other microcredit leaders will attend an international summit, dubbed Asia-Pacific Microcredit Summit 2008 in Bali, Indonesia on July 28, according to a message released by the Microcredit Summit Campaign yesterday.

The three-day summit will be held at the Bali International Convention Center at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia.

The summit, which will be organised by Microcredit Summit Campaign is likely to be attended by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, Manuel Zalaya Rosales, President of Honduras, Alejandro Toledo, Former President of Peru, Mrs. Zanele Mbeki, First Lady of South Africa, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate and Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank, and Sam Daley-Harris, Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

The Microcredit Summit Campaign is expected to be attended by more than 800 international microcredit leaders, donors, investors, and advocates at Asia-Pacific Microcredit Summit 2008.

The topic of the commercialization of microcredit will be on the agenda at this convergence of social entrepreneurs, donors, researchers, investors, and practitioners from 50 countries, including Asia's microcredit leaders: Prakash Bakshi, Chief of NABARD (India), Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC (Bangladesh), Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, Founder of ASA (Bangladesh), and RM Malla, Chair of SIDBI (India).

Since 1997, the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a project of Washington, DC-based RESULTS Educational Fund, has become the world's largest global network of microcredit stakeholders, including 3,600 microfinance institutions in 134 countries. As of December 2006, its member organizations provided loans and other financial services to help more than 133 million of the world's poor families lift themselves out of poverty through self-sufficiency.

This includes 92 million families who were living on less than one U.S. dollar per day when they took out their first loan.

By 2015, the Microcredit Summit Campaign aims to provide leadership, guidance, and support to ensure that, in keeping with the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals: (1) A total of 175 million of the world's poorest families, especially women of those families, receive credit for self-employment and other financial and business services; and (2) 100 million families rise above the US$1 a day threshold, adjusted for purchasing power parity.