WOLFSBURG(Germany) - NOBEL peace laureate Muhammad Yunus brought ideas for creating micro 'social businesses' from Bangladesh to Europe on Saturday with support from several of the world's leading corporations.

Mr Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for developing micro-credits that allow poor people to start companies, said the global economic crisis had given the world 'an opportunity to reflect and redesign' business models.

'All business does not have to be done only to maximise profit, there can be other businesses, businesses aimed exclusively at solving problems,' he said in Wolfsburg, northern Germany, home of Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen.

In addition to hosts VW and Grameen Creative Lab, food giant Danone, global water group Veolia, sportswear maker Adidas, professional software firm SAP, Kyushu University of Japan and Colombia's Caldas region were also represented.

Mr Yunus, a co-founder of the Grameen Creative Lab, believes social businesses can unite public sector and charity goals with the dynamics of an enterprise.

'If you can find out how to solve the problem of six unemployed people, you have designed something which can solve the problem of six million unemployed people, because the same thing can be repeated,' he explained. -- AFP