I want to see a world free from poverty. Poverty does not belong in a civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. The Grameen Bank and affiliated institutions are dedicated to providing opportunities that can help improve the socioeconomic condition of people who live in abject poverty. I believe that microcredit has a key role to play in reducing poverty. While access to credit for microenterprises is important by itself in improving the lives of the impoverished, it is complemented by other strategies.
For example, partnerships between microcredit programs and technology-oriented institutions will help reduce discrepancies in the opportunities available to the poor and the nonpoor. Information and communications technology is changing the world more rapidly and more fundamentally than any other technology in human history. I would like to see all information available to all people everywhere (including the poorest, the most ignorant, and the most powerless) at all times, almost cost-free. Why can’t we create a poverty-free world before the new century crosses the halfway mark?