I am entrepreneur myself. I started by creating a bank, Grameen Bank, and then moved into a wide number of businesses, all with a social purpose: Grameen Nursing College, Grameen Eyecare Hospitals, Grameen Shakti, etc. Microcredit has shown a way to empower women into entrepreneurship. Grameen Bank proved to the world that entrepreneurship is the solution to poverty. Building on 30 years of experience, and with now more than 8 million borrowers of Grameen Bank, I can say that I have always considered young entrepreneurs to be the most effective solution for the future. Therefore, in my opinion, G20 YES is a fabulous initiative, gathering so much energy and momentum from all over the world. Because of their creativity and leadership, provided that they commit to share the value they create, these 400 young entrepreneurs in this room can change the world.

I am also a member of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) Advocacy Group, advising the Secretary General of the United Nations. As such, I am convinced that this next generation of young people should be handed over the process of the MDGs as soon as possible. These goals need to become theirs, in order for them to create the world which they want to live in. Surely entrepreneurs have a key role to play in fulfilling MDGs, if they are committed to the social value created by their companies, and social business can be part of the solutions.

The Global Social Business Summit 2011 (GSBS2011) will be held in Vienna from 9th November to 12th November. This will be the 3rd time that this annual social business event is being held. The previous two were held in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

This year's Summit will inaugurated by Chancellor of Austria, Werner Feymann, and will bring together over 500 delegates, many of whom are social business pioneers from the corporate world, civil society, academic and government sectors. These participants from a diverse background will discuss the implications and prospects of social business, through panels and workshops; share results with others, make connections and learn from each other on the social business frontier.

This year's Summit will also launch a major new initiative to motivate young people around the world to help achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Some of the noted individuals who are attending this year's Summit are Thomas Stelzer, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter Agency Affairs, Fernando Pimentel, Brazilian Minister for Development, EU Commissioner Lazslo Andor, Narendra Jadhav, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Ron Garan, NASA astronaut, and Emanuel Faber, CO-CEO of Groupe Danone.

Professor Yunus also met with Yuriev Evgeny, Advisor to the President Medvedev on social issues. Advisor Evgeny sought advice from Professor Yunus regarding how to apply social business concept to solve two major problems, namely mothers with more than two children, most of whom are living under the poverty lines, and the problems of young people resorting to drinking and drug addiction. This upward rising trend is worrying the whole nation. The Advisor expressed government's wish to set up pilot social business projects to overcome these problems. It was decided that follow-up of these discussions will take place in Vienna next month when both of them will send high-powered delegations to Vienna to the Global Social Business Summit.

Professor Yunus signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce aimed at establishing collaboration in promotion of social business in Russia.

Professor Yunus addressed the Russian Social Business Forum as the Chief guest. The Economic Development Ministry organized the Forum. Heads of government agencies, public and private banks, academics, NGO leaders attended the daylong Forum.

Professor Yunus also met with Maxim Nogotkov, Chairman of Svyaznoy Group. He is one of the leading entrepreneurs of Russia and wants to set up a Grameen Bank in Russia.

At a time when government revenue is decreasing and more people are disaffected with the status quo, the University System of Georgia is proposing an alternative, hosting its first Social Business and Microcredit Forum Oct. 17.

The one-day event at the Georgia Institute of Technology challenged business students to create a viable business plan that solves a social problem in their community. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was the keynote speaker, who pioneered the social business concept, which is a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated entirely to achieving a social goal.

Welcoming nearly 1,200 students, educators and community members, Yunus shared his journey to social business that started when he was a young economics professor in Bangladesh. Returning to the country after its independence full of optimism, his hopes were dashed as he witnessed the great famine of 1974 creating widespread hunger and ravaging poverty.

Feeling shame at teaching "elegant economics theory" while people were dying of hunger, Yunus committed to leaving the university to visit the nearby village of Jobra to see if he could be useful to one person each day. It was there he learned about the problem of loan sharks motivating him to create a different kind of bank that would lend money to poor people who lacked collateral and other conditions traditional banks required.

Founded in 1976, the Grameen Bank has lifted millions of people out of poverty, and has a 97 per cent repayment rate.

"Microcredit programmes play an important role in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goal-1, that calls for reducing poverty by half by 2015," Yunus told IPS in an interview.

"Poverty in Bangladesh reduced at the rate of one percent per year during the 1990s, and during the period 2000-2005 it declined at a rate of 1.7 percent per year. That makes Bangladesh well-positioned to achieve this MDG," Yunus said.

But, Yunus, who was controversially removed as Grameen (rural) Bank's managing director in March, said there were worries about the future of his brainchild. "We all do hope that Grameen will be able to operate the way it has all these years, but are not sure if it will be able to do so.

"Whatever happens," Yunus said, "we must stand up to protect the rights of the eight million women owners of Grameen, who own 97 percent of its shares and be allowed to choose how their bank shall operate."

Critics say that MC clients, predominantly women, are often indebted through repeated loans and excessive interest rates. They question whether borrowers are really escaping poverty.

But, the mood is upbeat at the state-run MC organisation, Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation or PKSF, which loans billions of dollars annually to roughly 250 active partner organisations (POs) which improved their lending by 15 percent this fiscal over the last one.