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Cisco partners with Grameen Solutions to establish business centers in rural Bangladesh that serve as distribution points for a variety of services, such as birth and death certificates, healthcare, distance learning, and retail sales of such necessities as hybrid seeds.

Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. In its endeavor to promote ICT entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging markets, Cisco pledged help to launch a rural business centre pilot program and provide funding for three pilot business centers in Bangladesh. Grameen determines the mix of services and recruits qualified entrepreneurs to run the centers, while a Cisco grant supports a project team and helps establish test centers for a pilot. Because there are many thousands of rural communities in Bangladesh, this program has vast potential for improving livelihoods throughout the country. The initiative helps finance and train qualified entrepreneurs to set up and run business centers in rural Bangladesh. It is part of the ICT related micro-financing initiatives within the global “ICT Empowerment Network”.