The Yunus Center at AIT is a collaboration between Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. Professor Yunus and Professor Said Irandoust, President of AIT signed a charter on August 19, 2009.
Professor Yunus, known as "the banker to the poor", pioneered the concept of micro credit and established Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. In 2006, Grameen Bank and Professor Yunus were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Professor Yunus has received many other national and international honors. He is the author of Banker to the Poor, Creating a World Without Poverty and Building Social Business. He proposed the model of social business, a business designed to meet a social goal. A social business is a business that pays no dividends. It sells products at prices that make it self-sustaining. The owners of the company can get back the amount they have invested in the company over a period of time, but no profit is paid to investors in the form of dividends. Instead, any profit made stays in the business - to finance expansion, to create new products or services, and to do more good for the world.
The Yunus Center at AIT provides an independent and open platform for addressing development challenges faced by poor people in Asia. 
It provides as a forum for discussion between people from the public, private, academic and grass roots sectors to exchange ideas on poverty alleviation and social business.The Center aims to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development by promoting, developing and implementing social business ideas and projects.
Located inside a higher education institution the Center hopes to encourage the transformation of education institutions into dynamic promoters of change for poverty reduction. The Center applies interdisciplinary approaches in its operations and supports multi-stakeholder partnerships. It promotes the development and dissemination of innovative models for poverty reduction under three main focus areas: education for social business, action research and knowledge dissemination.
Dr. Riaz Khan, Director, Yunus Center at AIT hold a special discussion on alleviating poverty in Thailand through social business initiatives to The American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (AMCHAM) Charitable Foundation Committee at the AMCHAM Office on September 22, 2011 at 7:30 a.m.
Yunus Center at AIT is going to offer a training course on “Introduction to Social Business: A Concept Developed by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus” which is a collaborative jointly organized with AIT Extension. The short course will highlight in the context of understanding, designing and implementing new business model in line with social needs which are highly successfully implemented by Professor Muhammad Yunus. It will be delivered on 1 -3 November 2011 at AIT Conference Center. For further information please visit here.
On 6th July 2011, Dr. Riaz, Director of Yunus Center at AIT delivered a talk about Social Business to the students from United Group of Institutions, India. The students are from Undergraduate Program with Engineering background. The students have joined two weeks summer training at AIT.
The second Annual Social Business Day events was held on 28 June 2011 at Dhaka, Bangladesh with the theme of ‘Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through Social Business’.
The morning session was started by the opening remarks of Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. He addressed that the concept of social business was now spreading all around the world and is already changing lives in Bangladesh. Prof. Yunus outlined a number of significant social business ventures that are helping achieve the MDGs.
The meeting brought together experts from a wide cross-section of professions to discuss issues surrounding social business, its benefits, its challenges, and why social business models should be considered an effective and sustainable tool to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Ms. Saori Dubourg, President, Regional Functions and Country Management, Asia Pacific, BASF; Mr. Eric Lesueur, CEO of Veolia Water; and Ms. Corinne Bazina, Executive Director of Grameen Danone; Professor Barbara Parfitt, Principal, Grameen Caledonian Nursing College; Masaharu Okada, Executive Director, Grameen Creative Lab at Kyushu University; Mr. Hans Reitz, founder of Grameen Creative Lab shared their experience in developing social business.
The Yunus Centre’s Social Business essay competition is aimed at young people who have creative ideas about how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through Social Business. The concept of Social Business is new and very innovative as it pursues a social objective within a business structure. Young people have supported and embraced this concept. The world is eager to hear what Bangladeshi young people have to say and what creative ideas they have in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
This is an extraordinary opportunity for young students of Bangladesh, as their ideas will be read through by Professor Yunus, social business entrepreneurs and influential people in the social business movement. They will have the chance to contribute to the development of the social business concept with ideas meant to improve the social and economic conditions of the world poorest countries.
For more information, click HERE
