KOLKATA: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has mooted the setting up of big enterprises which would be owned by the poor people. He said that there was a need to reorient oneself so as to have ``an inclusive model of growth."

"Keeping the poor out of the economy is neither a good economic idea nor a very humane proposition", he said while addressing a programme of the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Prof. Yunus, who is also the Managing Director of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, said the bank, which had launched a programme of lending money to beggars, planned to reach 100 per cent of the poor families with micro credit facilities by 2010.

Monday's programme was organised to mark the 175th year of the chamber which described itself as Asia's oldest such chamber. Prof. Yunus said a mega seaport could be set up at Chittagong (Bangladesh) which now had a small port. "This could transform the country's economy and be run by professional management companies while being owned by the poor people of Bangladesh."

He said Grameen Phone, which was a first step to bring information technology to the poor, was now Bangladesh's largest mobile phone company with ten million subscribers. About three lakh women operating the system generated 19 per cent of the company's revenue. Prof. Yunus said the joint venture company, owned by Telenor of Norway (which owns 62 per cent) and Grameen Telecom (38 per cent), was proposed to be converted in to a social business by giving majority ownership to the poor women of Grameen Bank.

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