Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for the microcredit programs he launched in Bangladesh through Grameen Bank, has said he wants to bring the system to China, the International Herald Tribune reported. Speaking at the opening of the ITU Telecom World gathering in Hong Kong, Yunus revealed the Chinese authorities had invited him to begin trials in one of three remote locations. If successful, the program – which specializes in making loans of no more than US$100 – could be expanded nationwide. Yunus's Grameen Bank has provided collateral-free loans to five million people, 96% of them women, in Bangladesh since 1976. The loan repayment rate exceeds 98%. Yunus observed that China already has 100 microcredit programs but only about 100,000 customers have been attracted in the last 12 years.
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