Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met in Beijing Tuesday with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, president of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.

 

Li congratulated Yunus on winning the prize for his efforts in helping improve rural economy and promote social development in Bangladesh.

 

The two sides agreed that as developing countries with large rural population, China and Bangladesh can strengthen cooperation on rural economy to lift the living condition of people.

 

Yunus was here for the Grameen International Conference on Microcredit, which was held on October 22 to 23 in Beijing.

 

Yunus and his bank, the Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prizeon October 13 for creating the microcredit system that has helped millions of poor people in his homeland.

 

He set up the Grameen Bank in 1976 to give credit to poor people in his country, particularly women, in order to let them set up micro businesses without collateral.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2006)