Contacts:
Nguyen Hong Ngan
Phone: +84.4.9346600 - ext 234
E-mail: nnguyen5@worldbank.org Hanoi, June 15, 2007 – The 2007 Vietnam Innovation Day competition, on the theme of "Traffic Safety" today awarded 34 community projects, totaling above US$325,558. Winning project will get a grant of up to US$10,000 in seed money to test their innovative ideas and to scale up efforts to bring about better traffic safety, targeting groups ranging from kindergarten kids to students and youth, and adults. Vice Minister of Transport, Mr. Nguyen Hong Truong said, “It is necessary to mobilize the resources from the political circle, from all social strata and from all individuals. It is also important to raise the people’s awareness of the traffic regulations. The theme of the Vietnam Innovation Day this year is fully in line with the Government’s intention in this area.” “The Vietnam Innovation Day is a unique gathering of innovative ideas from communities and individuals across Vietnam that address local development challenges,” said Laurent Msellati, Acting Country Director of the World Bank in Vietnam. “With Traffic Safety as the theme for this year, we clearly recognize the urgency this issue to the development of Vietnam. The community’s participation in this event shows the social attention to the issue, as well as the willingness from the people to solve the issue at all levels of the society.” The winners were identified by a broadly-represented and highly respected panel of jurors from the Government, business, health care institutions, civil society, and the media. They evaluated the proposals according to five criteria – contribution to improving traffic safety, innovation and learning, feasibility, sustainability, reliability and ownership. The winning projects seek to solve the traffic problems by various means, from creating a curriculum in schools, making devices for blind people to use buses, to performing arts with traffic safety themes, or organizing first aid training. All the projects are highly appreciated for their creativity and commitments from the project owners. The first VID was organized in 2003. It has then become an annual event. Theme for each year was identified based on a wide consultation on issues of public interest, country focus and priority in government agenda and varied from Life Safety (2003), Fighting HIV/AIDS (2004), Environmental Actions (2005) and Disadvantaged Children and Youth (2006). The competition, jointly organized by the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and the World Bank, was open between March and May and attracted 216 proposals of which 49 were selected as finalists. This year’s event receives the support in cash and in kind from the Almec Coporation, Australian Overseas Aid Program (AusAID), the Royal Embassy of Denmark, Department for International Development (UK), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency (NZAid), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the United States Embassy, and VTC Multimedia Corporation. Since its inception, the program has seen an increasing numbers of applications, partners and donors. Nearly 1.000 applicants from across the country responded to the call for proposal, demonstrating a huge volume of innovative, local solutions to promote development and poverty alleviation. Access the list of winning projects here (622k pdf) For more information about the Vietnam Innovation Day 2007, click here For more information about the World Bank Program in Vietnam, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/vn For more information about the East Asia and Pacific transport program, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/eaptransport |
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