Vietnam Innovation Day 2007 Looks for Community Initiatives to Improve Traffic Safety

The World Bank in Vietnam

National Traffic Safety Committee

Hanoi, March 14, 2007 -  “Traffic Safety” will be the theme for the Vietnam Innovation Day 2007 (VID 2007), to be held mid-June in Vietnam. This was announced today by the National Traffic Safety Committee, Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and The World Bank in Vietnam, the co-organisers of this event.

While launching the Vietnam Innovation Day 2007 at a press conference, Mr. Thai told a press conference that “this competition, together with other activities by the National Traffic Safety Committee such as the Forum on Traffic Safety, will be a great contribution to Government, ministries and localities’ efforts to reduce the number of injuries and the loss of life.”

“We hope that the awards from this competition will help winners bring to life their innovative ideas, and that this in turn will help reduce traffic accidents at the communities,” he said.

According to statistics, traffic accidents kill arounnd 30 people and injure 60 others every day in Vietnam, and the number of fatalities continue to rise.

VID 2007, a competition for innovative ideas, aims to promote community initiatives to deal with local traffic safety issues. "For the past several years the World Bank's Innovation Day has proven an important competition, acting as a catalyst for hundreds of social entrepreneurs to aspire to." Greig Craft, President of Asia Injury says.

“Vietnam has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world in recent years and this is accompanied by rapid traffic growth,” said Martin Rama, Lead Economist of the World Bank in Vietnam. “Appropriate transport policies and infrastructure development can help cope with this surge in traffic, but more is needed."

“Last year, nearly 13,000 people died accidents, causing losses of lives, and serious economic consequences for the society in general and for the affected families in particular.” Martin adds.

Under the theme for the 2007 programme “Traffic Safety”, there are five sub-themes: (i) Enforcement of traffic regulations; (ii) Education and Awareness raising; (iii) Better emergency services/responses; (iv) Reducing pollution; and (v) Improvement in traffic environment and road design.

The program consists of two major events:

• Innovation Competition - an open competition jury process, whereby start-up funds are awarded to organizations proposing innovative ideas that will improve “Traffic Safety” through out Vietnam, and;
   
• Knowledge Exchange - leaders in the development community will come together to share their experiences around the theme of “Traffic Safety”.

The event is co-organized by the World Bank, National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) and Asia Injury Foundation. Its co-sponsors to date are Australian Overseas Aid Program (AusAID), the Royal Embassy of Denmark, Department for International Development (UK), New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency (NZAid), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Vietnam Airlines.

It is planned that at least 30 grants will be awarded through an open competition for implementation of proposed innovative ideas. The maximum award size is expected to be about US$10,000. The final awarded amount may vary in size and will be determined based on the needs of the proposals selected.

For background information about the Vietnam Innovation Day 2007, please click here

To download the application form, please click  here (84kb pdf)

For more information about the World Bank in Vietnam, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/vn