Highlighting the risks of wealth and power concentration, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Thursday said a society collapses sooner or later if wealth and power concentration happens in it.

“Unless wealth is shared, you cannot sustain a society,” he said while delivering his keynote speech at the BIMSTEC Young Gen Forum, a forum that inspired young entrepreneurs.

Dr Yunus, who created microcredit, invented social business, and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in alleviating poverty, is now paying a two-day visit here to attend the BIMSTEC Summit on Friday.

Thailand is hosting the 6th Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and Bangladesh will take responsibility as the next chair of BIMSTEC on Friday.

Dr Yunus arrives in Bangkok ahead of BIMSTEC Summit

Thailand has taken over the BIMSTEC Chairmanship from Sri Lanka since 30 March 2022.

Talking about the new civilisation, Dr Yunus said businesses should not be greed driven and that is the first condition of the new civilisation.

“Greed will destroy us. Why? Because whatever all the things that we talk about, we promise the government to see this is what we're doing. Our country is moving forward. Our GDP is growing and all that - growth rate is so high. So what? This gets concentrated in a few hands. They become richer and richer, and we call it development. We call it growth, we call it a fantastic economy,” said the chief adviser, adding that this way the seed of self-destruction is planted.

He said this is one reason why civilisation cannot sustain and on top of it, they are destroying the planet.

Dr Yunus, who established the Grameen Bank in 1983, laid emphasis on challenging the system to change the world.

“You cannot create the world with the same system. If you want to change the world, you have to change the system. There's no other option for you. If you go by the same road, you'll always get to the same destination. If you want to go to a new destination, you have to build a new road,” he said.

The chief apdviser said the young generation today is so different. “I keep mentioning to the young generation that you are the most powerful generation in human history.”

“And you're taking this most powerful generation and putting them into work for somebody else, taking orders from somebody else.

Highlighting the importance of access to credit, Dr Yunus said, “You cannot achieve all the rights unless you establish the right to credit.”

“The moment you have the right to credit, other rights will be established by themselves by people themselves. You don't have to bring it from outside,” he added.

Dr Yunus urged the young generation to build themselves as "three-zero persons" to protect the planet from destruction.

"If we want to provide service, we will have to go to a new civilisation of three zeros - zero carbon emission, zero waste and zero wealth concentration," he said.

The Chief Adviser said the world is approaching a self-destructive civilisation as carbon emission, waste generation and wealth concentration continue applying the old economic models.

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He stressed the need for protection of nature to sustain in society.

Dr Yunus said human beings are not born to work under anybody else but they were born to be entrepreneurs.

He described the young generation as the most powerful generation ever in the world and said life is about preservation and protection and that is why the new civilisation of three zeros should be created.

Dr Yunus said once five persons get together, they can create a three-zero club where they will not personally contribute to carbon emission, waste generation and wealth concentration, and they will be three-zero persons.

"You cannot change the world in a day...if you want to change, start from your village," the Chief Adviser said.

Young business leaders joined and exchanged ideas and explored their abilities in business areas at the BIMSTEC Young Gen Forum.

The forum is part of Thailand’s hosting of the sixth BIMSTEC Summit and related meetings between April 2 and 4.

Dr Yunus is the key person in pushing activities for young people in BIMSTEC member countries, as a stage for their cooperation and for enhancing their talent, said organisers of the event.

BIMSTEC consists of seven member countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.