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          Grameen Bank Managing Director Prof. Muhammad Yunus said the NGOs doing business in the country illegally or taking part any other unlawful activities should be punished under a legal framework.
Prof. Yunus said the government should frame law and set up an independent body to regulate the business and other activities of the non-governmental organisations.
"There should be an independent regulatory body to monitor the activities of the NGOs. The government should go after NGOs that are doing business illegally or engaged in any illegal activities in the country," Prof. Yunus told a galaxy of businessmen Saturday.
"Lately there have been a lot of talks on the involvement of NGOs in businesses. I would request the government to make a legal framework and punish the ones who will breach the laws," the eminent economist said.
Yunus was responding to the observation of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president and other chamber leaders that NGOs are encroaching on business illegally.
The eminent economist also stated that a new banking arrangement has become essential for the country's small and medium enterprises, as the conventional banking system has failed miserably to address their needs.
"The SMEs are the largest job creators in the country, yet they hardly get any support from the government or the commercial banks. There is a gross mismatch between demand and supply," Prof. Yunus said.
Yunus was addressing the heads of the member-organisations of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) at the Chamber Building. Chamber president Kutubuddin Ahmed was in the chair.
The Metro chamber organised the meeting days after Prof. Yunus was adjudged one of the top 25 business personalities in the world by prestigious Wharton Business School.
Prof. Yunus told the august gathering that the conventional banking has failed to support the cash-strapped SMEs and it has now become a prerogative on the part of the government to start an experimental banking arrangement for the SMEs.
A successful social entrepreneur of world repute, the Grameen Bank MD also stressed that the country produce social business entrepreneurs to solve large-scale social malaise in Bangladesh.
"Social Business Entrepreneurship is the new buzzword in today's world as the developed countries now emphasise producing hundreds of such entrepreneurs who would build up 'non-loss' making organisations to get rid of social problems," Prof. Yunus said.
Unlike the businessmen who are busy making personal fortune, these social business entrepreneurs will have different objective and their only aim would be to contribute to social causes, Yunus said.
He added that there should be Social Stock Exchange to trade the shares of the social organisations. "Anyone with a good heart can be able to trade shares in this special bourse."
Defending the high interest rates of Grameen Bank, Prof. Yunus said the cost of fund of the Bank is comparatively higher while a number of its schemes are well below the deposit rate, which make it impossible to lower the interest rate from the present 20 per cent.
"We will welcome if anyone comes up with a better interest rate and a better service. After all, it is poor who will be benefitted by such innovative schemes," the GB MD said.
Referring to the dearth of fund for the small NGOs, Prof. Yunus said an absence of regulatory framework for these organisations lead to this problem.
"Unless there is a legal framework and an independent regulatory body to enforce the law, fund shortage will continue to afflict the small NGOs."
"We have a sound domestic economy and there is enough money in the market. If a legal framework is in place, these NGOs can have access to this fund. They don't have to look overseas."
Detailing the recent achievement of his bank, he said from January this year, the Grameen Bank has started interest-free credit programme for the beggars, who are responding positively to this idea.
He said already 7000 beggars have been enlisted under the programme and the bank is providing income generating tools to these destitute to have a chance to change their live.
"A lot of people confuse GB as an NGO. It is a business organisation with a good cause. It's a bank being run as per Grameen Bank Ordinance 1984 and it has an efficient management who knows how to manage its fund," he clarified to some queries.
Since its inception, the bank has given Tk 200 billion credit through its 1225 branches across the country. The bank has 3.4 million members, 95 per cent of whom are women. The bank only gives credit to its members.
The bank's total outstanding loan amounts to Tk16.65 billion, Prof. Yunus said, claiming that since 1995 the bank has not received any funding from foreign donors.
In his brief welcome address, MCCI president Kutubuddin Ahmed lauded Prof. Yunus' role in alleviating poverty in the country.
He, however, said: The chamber is aware of the paradox of business-NGO relationship and business' reservations about NGOs encroaching on business but it is Dr. Yunus who has shown that businesses and NGOs play supplementary roles.
Business leaders including ICC-B president Mahbubur Rahman, Mahbub Jamil, MA Awal, Fazle RM Hassan, Anisul Haq, Samson H Chowdhury and Rokia A Rahman spoke on the occasion, lauding Yunus' trailblazing role as a businessman and an eminent social entrepreneur.