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The Bangladesh poor selling organs to pay debts
Millions of rural Bangladeshis, grow up facing a life of hardship. In an attempt to alleviate poverty, countless numbers take on debt with microcredit lenders, only to find themselves in a difficult situation when they are unable to repay the loan.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- microfinance
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In Indonesia, Mobile banking becomes a source of local banks’ revenue
With the sharp increase in the use of smartphones, mobile banking has become an important source of income for Indonesian banks that are now expanding fee-based services to boost their profits.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Alibaba issues China’s first microloan securitization
Orient Securities and Alibaba have issued the nation’s first securitized product backed by microloans.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- microfinance
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World Bank president to open 2013 Microcredit Summit
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim will open the 2013 Microcredit Summit: Partnerships against Poverty on October 9 with a recorded statement urging the nearly 800 delegates from 69 countries to commit themselves to the advancement of microfinance to end extreme poverty.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Philippines central bank in broad Islamic finance push
In what could be one of the most ambitious efforts to facilitate Islamic finance in a non-Muslim country, the Philippines' central bank is pushing several initiatives to develop the sector and encourage financial inclusion of the Muslim minority.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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ADB, Gates Foundation Partner for Sanitation Innovation in Asia
As the world’s most populous region continues to grow, innovative solutions to sanitation are more needed than even before in Asia, where many governments still don’t see this Millennium Development Goal as a priority.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Golden Rice: Lifesaver?
One bright morning this month, 400 protesters smashed down the high fences surrounding a field in the Bicol region of the Philippines and uprooted the genetically modified rice plants growing inside.Had the plants survived long enough to flower, they would have betrayed a distinctly yellow tint in the otherwise white part of the grain. That is because the rice is endowed with a gene from corn and another from a bacterium, making it the only variety in existence to produce beta carotene, the source of vitamin A. Its developers call it “Golden Rice.”
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- nutrition
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Counterfeit medicine trade targets Africa’s poor
"Street medication kills. The street is killing (safe) medication," declares a banner outside a pharmacy in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde, where the dangerous trade is rampant.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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