WASHINGTON: The United States has said it is “ deeply concerned about the recent actions of the Government of Bangladesh has taken to give the government-appointed chairman of the Grameen Bank Board control over the selection of the bank’s new managing director.”
The State Department said that the move would diminish the role the largely female borrower-shareholders play in shaping the direction of an institution that has made a difference to millions of impoverished women in Bangladesh, and indeed around the world.
During her May visit to Dhaka, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni to take no actions that would undermine Grameen Bank. “We are concerned that the latest actions by the government could threaten the future of the bank, which was founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus,” Acting Deputy Spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. – APP
