During the discussion, the 32-year old political leader mentioned that his generation received inspiration from Professor Yunus' work and philosophy.
They focused on the social business solution to youth unemployment by turning youth into entrepreneurs and creating a national Social Business Venture Capital fund to provide equity to the youth.
Di Maio, pointed out that he is from Naples where 60 percent of the youth are unemployed. It is sad that a rich country like Italy cannot provide jobs for its own youth, he said.
Professor Yunus talked about importance of creating a separate law to create banks for the poor. The Italian leader requested Yunus' help in designing such a law. Professor Yunus mentioned that he is already involved with the provincial government of Basilicata, in the south of Italy, to set up a social business venture capital fund in Matera, 5000 year old city in Basilicata.
University of Basilicata's Matera campus has set up a Yunus Social Business Centre to teach courses in social business and undertake researches in social business. They discussed how to promote the concept of social business among the young people and business leaders. They also discussed how CSR money can be used in creating social businesses.
Di Maio said his party is committed to introduce guaranteed Basic Income for all unemployed people. He sought Professor Yunus' opinion on this issue.
Yunus said that he is always against state charity for solving the problem of the poor. This hides the problem rather than solving the problem. It leads to dependence, whereas “our policies should be aimed at unleashing individual's creative capacity. “
After his meeting with Luigi Di Maio, Professor Yunus left for Scala, a town 300 kilometers south of Rome on the Amalfi Coast to attend a ceremony to commemorate the loss of lives of the events of 11 September 2001, in the framework of the collaboration between Scala and New York.
Professor Yunus was the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker for the ceremony led by the Mayor of the city, and attended by many celebrities of Italy.
Since the January elections in Italy, Professor Yunus has met with the President of Italy, the Speaker of the newly elected Parliament, the Mayor of Rome and the Mayor of Torino.