Newsletter Issue No. 13 January 2018
KALEIDOSCOPE 8th Global Social Business Summit The 8th Global Social Business Summit (GSBS) took place in Paris, France on 6 & 7 November 2017, bringing together over 700 delegates from around the world for the first time. Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus hosted the Summit organized by Yunus Centre, Grameen Creative Lab, Germany and the Paris Mayor's office. The theme for this year’s Summit was: ‘New Wave of Hope!’ With the participation of delegates from the private sector, civil s o c i e t y, g o v e r n m e n t s a n d academia, the event focused on discussion, collaboration and the sharing of best practices around social business and its positive impact. While inaugurating the event, Mayor of Paris Ms. Anne Hidalgo
acknowledged Professor Muhammad Yunus's contribution to the entire world through his work for poverty alleviation, ensuring gender equality and environment. She also appreciated Professor Yunus’s initiative to bring sports and social business together by supporting Paris to host the Summer Olympic 2024 as the firstever social business-centric Olympic. The Mayor reaffirmed her commitment to make Paris world’s social business city. Her Excellency Queen Sofia of Spain, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Maria Theresa, Deputy Mayor of Paris Antoinette Guhl, UN Assistant Secretary General for SDGs Thomas Gass and President of World Business Council Perer Bakker were present
“WE ARE NOT JOB SEEKERS; WE ARE JOB GIVERS” Prof. Muhammad Yunus
In This Issue: 8th Global Social Business Summit 01 5th Social Business Academia Conference (SBAC) 02 l
GTT’S IN-HOUSE NEWS: l
Half-yearly training for Area Managers 04
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Second time investment in Nobin Udyokta (New Entrepreneur) 04
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5th Social Business Monthly Co-ordination Meeting 05
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31st Board Meeting of Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT)
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Delegates from Hatch Consulting
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New Year Celebration Program Of GTT
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Prof. Muhammad Yunus along with Her Excellency Queen Sofia of Spain, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Maria Theresa and Deputy Mayor of Paris Antoinette Guhl at the inauguration ceremony of 8th Global Social Business Summit.
Ms. Parveen Mahmud at the 10th ICC World Chamber Congress 03
Prof. Muhammad Yunus’ visit to Grameen Telecom Trust projects 07
at the inauguration ceremony. The Mayor of Paris formally handed over the honorary citizenship of the French capital to Prof. Muhammad Yunus at the inaugural session of the Summit. The Summit focused on the following topics - Food and its Value, Plastic Pollution, Solidarity & Refugees and Paris, 2024 Olympic Games. Ms. Parveen Mahmud (Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust) presented at the Deep Dive session, a parallel session that took place on 6 November, 2017. She also presented a short video on Grameen Telecom Trust’s (GTT) activities and gave a power point presentation on the Joint Venture Programs of GTT. Ms. Lamiya Morshed (Executive Director, Yunus Centre) inaugurated this session. On the 2nd day of Global Social Business Summit, a workshop on Nobin Udyokta Program was held. The
workshop was moderated by Ms. Parveen Mahmud where she also presented a video on Nobin Udyokta Program and discussed about the statistical overview of the Nobin Udyokta Program. Mr. Abdul Hai Khan (Managing Director, Grameen Trust), Ms. Nazneen S u l t a n a ( M a n a g i n g D i r e c t o r, G r a m e e n Communications), Ms. Saleha Begum (Managing Director, Grameen Shakti Shamajik Byabosha Ltd.), Mr. Tazbinur Rahman (General Manager, Grameen Kalyan), Mr. Amir Khashru (General Manager, Yunus Center) and Mr. Jayanta Kumer Bosu (Team Leader, Grameen Telecom Trust) were also among the panelists who discussed about the Nobin Udyokta Program. Mr. Sultan Ahmed Bhuiyan (CFO & Board Secretary, Grameen Telecom Trust) also spoke about the importance of accounts and finance with respect to the Nobin Udyokta Program.
5th Social Business Academia Conference (SBAC) As part of 8th Global Social Business Summit (GSBS) 2017, a two-day Social Business Academia Conference (SBAC), 2017 took place on 8 & 9 November in Paris, France at City International University Campus Paris (Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris). Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus delivered the keynote speech after the welcome speech by Ms. Carine Camby from Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris and introduction by Ms. Lamiya Morshed, Executive Director, Yunus Centre and Mr. Hans Reitz, CoFounder, Grameen Creative Lab. Ms. Parveen Mahmud (Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust) along with Dr. Farhana Ferdousi (Assistant Professor, Southeast University) presented a paper titled “Strategies for Scaling Up Social Business Impact on Sustainable Living: A case study on Social Business
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Learning and Innovation Fund (SBLIF)” at the 5th Social Business Academia Conference (SBAC). The paper attempted to explore what scaling up strategies are usually taken by several social business partnership venture initiated by Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) through their Social Business Learning and Innovation Fund (SBLIF) projects in order to create more impact on sustainable living. This year’s conference has attracted 135 academics from 15 countries. There were 49 papers submission this year, of which 38 were accepted for presentation. These included papers related to social business and education, technology, healthcare, disaster management, entrepreneurship, marketing and other issues.
Ms. Parveen Mahmud at the 10th ICC World Chamber Congress T h e 1 0 t h Wo r l d C h a m b e r Congress (WCC) Chamber was held in Sydney, Australia from 1921 September, 2017 at the International Convention Centre, Sydney in Harbour City. The WCC is the only international forum for chamber leaders and professionals, representing more than 100 countries to share bestpractices, exchange insights, develop networks, address the latest business issues affecting their communities and learn about new areas of innovation from chambers around the world. Ms. Parveen Mahmud (Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust) attended this program and was one of the speakers in the plenary session on “Leadership”. She s p o ke o n “ L e a d e rs h i p fo r Transformation: Bangladesh Perspective” and highlighted grassroots innovations in Bangladesh and the government’s focus of investment in women to achieve women’s empowerment, entrepreneurship and sustainable development. Her presentation also emphasized on Digital Bangladesh to achieve the country’s vision 2021 and GO-NGO collaboration for sustainable development. Ms. Par veen Mahmud said that the challenge
for leaders is to be both empathetic and to have a sustainable business model. Along with Ms. Mahmud, Mr. Esko Aho, Former Prime Minister of Finland & Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations and Responsibility, Nokia and Mr. Umit Subasi, President AsiaPacific Campbell Arnott's were also among the other speakers. Mr. Damien Cave, Australia Bureau Chief - The New York Times was the moderator of the session. The plenary session concluded with an interactive question and answer session.
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GTT’S IN-HOUSE NEWS Half-yearly Training for Area Managers Skill development of the employees of any organization is a continuous process, in continuation with such process Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) organized a day-long half yearly training on 29 October, 2017 at the Social Business Learning Centre (SBLC). 12 Area Managers working for Nobin Udyokta program participated in the training. The training started with inaugural speech from Mr. Sultan Ahmed Bhuiyan (CFO and Board Secretary, Grameen Telecom Trust). In his speech Mr. Ahmed Bhuiyan said, “ G T T t r i e s t o i m p ro v e i t s employee’s skill. It is not possible to achieve success without a force of skilled employees. And skilled managers have greater importance for skilled workers.” He called the managers to participate in the training with utmost importance. Mr. Jayanta Kumer Bosu (Team Leader Social Business & Program Support, Grameen Telecom Trust)
facilitated different sessions on Nobin Udyokta program and discussed all over the program and provided necessary guidlines. In the second session Mr. Ahmed Bhuiyan discussed about finance and accounts that are related to the program. The third session was facilitated by Mr. Manjur Ahmed (Head of HR and Admin, Grameen Telecom Trust). He discussed on different areas of human resources and administration and what are the responsibilities of the area managers. In the final session, Mr. Saidul Islam (Head of the IT, Grameen Telecom Trust) discussed about Nobin Udyokta Program Monitoring System (NUPMS) and Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and properly use of technology. Mr. Abu Nayeem (Coordinator of the training, Manager, Social Business and Program Support, Grameen Telecom Trust) thanked the HR & Admin department of GTT for their support to arrange the training and thanked the participants for their participation and concluded.
Second-time investment in Nobin Udyokta (New Entrepreneur) GTT started second time investment in NU businesses. Sixteen NUs have been selected for re-investment. The second time investment was released initially for the selected NUs to those who properly utilized the first time investment, maintained daily business accounts, has sent SMS regularly and submitted monthly report on time. And above of all, refunded the first investment as per the schedule. Moreover, they have created employment opportunities, which is one of the major objectives of NU program. Besides these criterions, their houses and businesses were 04 / GRAMEEN TELECOM TRUST
revisited for the selection assessment. 30 of the NUs were to refund their investment within a scheduled, and all of them successfully refunded on time. 16 of the aforementioned NUs received investment for the second time. Total amount approved for the second investment is BDT 26, 90,000 (USD 324,229). The selected NUs made significant progress. They have expanded their businesses. They made assets, built houses and quality of their living condition is improved. It is expected that other NUs will be encouraged to receive the second time investment.
5th Social Business Monthly Co-ordination Meeting On 10 October, 2017, the 5th “Social Business Monthly Coordination” meeting was held at Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) presided by Ms. Parveen Mahmud (Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust). Various field level issues and technical issues related to the social business programs of GTT, i.e. Nobin Udyokta-NU (New Entrepreneur) Program and projects under Social Business Learning and Innovation Fund were discussed in the meeting. The meeting started with Ms. Parveen Mahmud listing the issues those needed to be
addressed in the reports. Following was a detailed summary of the agendas of the subject matter presented by Mr. Jayanta Kumer Bosu (Team Leader, Social Business, Grameen Telecom Trust). The panel officers then presented a report on their respective panel areas comprising of the activities related to the NU program. They also cited the problems faced in their respective areas and a discussion was held on the solutions and how they can be implemented.
31st Board Meeting of Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) The 31st Board Meeting of Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) was held on 19 December, 2017 at Yunus Centre. The meeting was chaired by the Honorable Chairman and Managing Trustee of GTT, Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. All departments updated the Board of Trustees on various operational issues. After the presentations and discussions, the board took a number of decisions and set future plans.
The meeting started with a welcome address by the Honorable Chairman, Prof. Muhammad Yunus. It was followed by a report on GTT’s activities presented by Ms. Parveen Mahmud (Managing Director and Ex-officio, Grameen Telecom Trust). The meeting approved the proceedings of the previous meeting and follow up of different previous issues. The Board also discussed various agendas.
Delegates from Hatch Consulting On 28 September, 2017 Ms. Muna Farid (Director, Hatch Consulting) and Mr. Amer Farid (Director, Hatch Consulting) visited Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) to know about its programs and activities. Hatch Consulting, headquartered in Dubai, UAE is a niche provider of advisory service to start-ups, small and medium sized companies. The delegates were keen in learning about the realms of Social Business ISSUE NO. 13: JANUARY 2018 /
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and how one can implement them to reality. The meeting was an interactive session among the delegates and GTT team where several questions were answered and few business ideas were also discussed. Mr. Manjur Ahmed (Head of HR. and Admin, GTT) and Mr. Abu Nayeem (Manager, Social Business & Program Support, GTT) facilitated the
meeting supported by Tasnim Naz (Officer, Communication & Social Business, GTT). A power point presentation and a video presentation were shown about the activities of GTT. The delegates also received a gift package from GTT. The meeting concluded with a group photo and the delegates signing the visitor’s book with their comments.
New year celebtartion program of GTT
New Year Cake cutting by Ms. Parveen Mahmud, Professor S.M.Huzzatul Islam Latifee (Vice Chairman and Trustee) and Mr. Ashraful Hassan (CEO, Grameen Telecom Trust) jointly
The first working day of the New Year, 2018 of Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) started with a New Year celebration program organized at its Social Business Learning Centre (SBLC). The program was inaugurated with a welcome speech by Ms. Parveen Mahmud FCA (Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust) where she expressed her joy and thanked the staffs for the successful completion of another year of the company and emphasized on team building spirit. Following was a year-end video on the activities of GTT in 2017. Mr. Ashraful Hassan (CEO, Grameen Telecom Trust) also spoke about the potential growth of the company and
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expressed where he wish to see GTT in the near future. Professor S.M.Huzzatul Islam Latifee (Vice Chairman and Trustee) and Ms. Nurjahan Begum (Board of Trustee, Grameen Telecom Trust) were also present. Professor S.M.Huzzatul Islam Latifee gave a short speech and wished everyone a happy new year. A cultural show was also performed by the employees of GTT comprising of songs, short play and poem recitation written by Ms. Aditi Kabir (Assistant Manager, Grameen Telecom Trust). The program ended with New Year Cake cutting and photo session followed by lunch.
Prof. Muhammad Yunus’ visit to Grameen Telecom Trust projects The honorable Chairman and Managing Trustee of Grameen Telecom Trust Prof. Muhammad Yunus visited three of the construction projects of Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT) on 16 January, 2018. He was accompanied by GTT’s Board of Trustees, members of project advisory committee, and MDs and senior officials of various Grameen Companies including GTT. During the visit a meeting of the advisory committee was held at the Samajik Convention Center, Zirabo.
Science Institute and Research Center (SHSRIC), Samajik Convention Center and Grameen Telecom Trust building was described in a power point presentation by Mr. Ashraful Hasan (CEO, Grameen Telecom Trust) in the end.
The last visiting site of the Chairman was in Samajik Convention Centre, Zirabo, Dhaka. The purpose and future plans of all three of the project- Samajik Health
The Managing Director of GTT Ms. Parveen Mahmud delivered a short speech on the occasion. In her speech she thanked the Project & Infrastructure Department (PID) of GTT along with the other departments for their continuous support. Prof. Muhammad Yunus in his speech thanked everyone and expressed hope for the success of the projects. He also described the different aspects and visions of the projects. He specially thanked Professor Dr. Jamilur Reza Choudhury and Ar. Mubasser Hussain and Dr. A.M.M. Saifullah (VC, Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology and ExVC, BUET) for giving their valuable time and expressed his gratitude. In the end, he thanked Mr. Ashraful Hasan (CEO, Grameen Telecom Trust) and Mr. Jahirul Islam Khan (Head of PID) and GTT. Team Leader, SB & Program Support
Briefing at corporate building
Laying foundation of GCCN
Construction site of SHSRIC visit
Meeting of the advisory committee
Prof. Muhammad Yunus first visited the construction work in progress for the corporate office in Zoo Road, Dhaka. Mr. Ashraful Hasan (CEO, Grameen Telecom Trust) briefed the processes and objectives of the construction of Grameen Telecom Trust corporate building. The Chairman laid the foundation stone to inaugurate the construction work of Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing (GCCN) located in Diabari, Uttara, Dhaka.
Published By Grameen Telecom Trust Corporate Office House- 132, Road-2, Block-A, Section-12 Pallabi, Mirpur, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh 880-2-9034733, 880-2- 9034744 880-2-9023916 info@gtctrust.com www.gtctrust.com www.socialbusinesspedia.com
Advisor Prof. Muhammad Yunus Executive Editor Parveen Mahmud, FCA
Editorial Team Jayanta Kumer Bosu Abu Nayeem Aditi Kabir
Technical Advisor Md. Saidul Islam Design Md. Uzzal Miah
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