Bangladesh Passes Bill to Tighten Control on Grameen Bank-英语听力

[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English, [00:03.03]this is the Economics Report. [00:06.05]This week, Bangladesh's Parliament passed a law [00:10.21]that brings the Grameen Bank [00:12.27]under control of the country's Central Bank. [00:16.11]Women directors of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh [00:20.26]had promised to protest government moves [00:23.47]to control the bank. [00:25.62]Grameen means rural or village in the Bengali language. [00:31.82]Grameen Bank's headquarters is in the capital, dhaka. [00:37.13]9 of the bank's 12 voting directors [00:40.79]are currently village women. [00:43.58]They recently condemned the new law. [00:46.86]The Grameen Bank bill of 2013 will give Bangladesh's [00:53.07]Central Bank the power to appoint 3 bank directors. [00:57.83]Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina [01:00.92]sent the bill to Parliament last week. [01:04.18]The current directors question the government's right [01:08.33]to seize control of the bank. [01:10.58]They warn that this would destroy the success operation of [01:14.88]a bank owned mostly by low-income women. [01:19.43]They also called for future protests. [01:23.58]Grameen was the first bank to make small loans [01:28.03]to low-income people. [01:29.99]Bangladesh economist Muhammad Yunus started the bank in 1976. [01:37.30]Micro-lending quickly spread around the world. [01:41.81]Such loan programs are now available in almost every country. [01:47.92]Studies from many countries [01:50.62]show the small loans have a powerful effect. [01:54.29]Yet critics say it is not clear [01:57.15]that such loans help families out of poverty. [02:00.80]Some borrowers spend loan money to buy new things, [02:05.30]instead of creating or expanding a business. [02:08.80]In 2006, the Grameen Bank and Mr Yunus [02:13.97]jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize. [02:17.06]A documentary shown in Norway in 2010 [02:21.46]raised questions about bank practices. [02:25.93]After the documentary, the Nobel Prize Committee [02:30.38]expressed support for the bank and for Yunus. [02:34.44]But the Bangladesh government began efforts to oust him. [02:39.09]In 2011, a court in Bangladesh forced him from his position [02:45.85]for violating a Retirement Age Law. [02:49.10]In September of this year, [02:51.85]the government accused him of not paying tax. [02:55.80]Mr Yunus denied the accusation. [03:00.52]Critics of the government say [03:03.73]the campaign against the Grameen Bank and Mr Yunus began in 2007, [03:10.75]when he suggested he might run for office [03:14.04]to answer problems with corruption in Bangladesh. [03:19.22]In recent speeches, Mr Yunus has said, [03:24.03]he wants tocreate what he calls social businesses. [03:28.55]He says social businesses would earn profits, [03:33.65]but the profits would not go to owners. [03:37.61]He say they would be used to help people and the environment. [03:44.36]And that's the Economics Report from VOA Learning English, [03:51.28]I'm Mario Ritter.