FE Report

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, has signed an agreement with Grameen Trust of Bangladesh to form a new business venture dedicated to economic and social development.

Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett announced this Monday while addressing the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2008 in Malaysia, said a press release received in Dhaka Monday.

The Grameen-Intel joint venture aims to bring about self-sustained solutions based on information and communications technology (ICT) to help empower the people of Bangladesh. The initiative, which will be launched in Bangladesh, is based on the "social business" model created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who founded Grameen Bank in 1976 to promote micro-financing and community development.

"Technology offers the means for scaling up our efforts toward global change and progress," said Barrett, who also chairs the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID). "By creating new business models based on ICT, as Intel is doing today with Grameen, we can bring people the tools they need to improve their future."

"I am very happy to collaborate with Intel in this new direction and create opportunities for poor people to rise above social and economic barriers," said Yunus, also author of the best-selling book, Creating a World Without Poverty.

"I believe technology-based services will provide the 'hand up' that people need to discover their full potential. Once we show that this business model works in Bangladesh, we hope the successes we achieve there can be applied to the rest of the developing world."

Grameen-Intel combines Intel's technology innovation and Grameen's extensive experience in creating economic development and income-generation opportunities at the village level. The new company will use a private sector-based approach to address social and economic problems such as poverty, healthcare and education in developing countries.

"Intel and Grameen foresee a number of ICT-based services and entrepreneurship opportunities growing out of such a business model. Examples include remote villagers receiving medical attention through Internet connectivity, rural communities being able to order medicine locally instead of having to walk 10 miles to a hospital, and families being notified of monies received from relatives abroad."

Kazi I. Huque, the Intel manager serving as the CEO of the joint venture, said: "The creative usage of technology has the potential to make a real impact on people in the developing nations who today are not part of the digital age."

"To narrow the gap, we must address specific needs at the grass-roots level," Huque said. "This collaboration between Grameen and Intel offers us the opportunity to apply innovative ICT solutions to alleviate issues at the village level, aid social development and extend Intel's technology reach in new areas".