Sixteen innovative ideas for social equity and sustainable growth have been awarded with almost 8.5 billion VND at Vietnam Innovation Day (VID) 2011.

Addressing the award ceremony in Hanoi on June 15, WB chief economic expert Deepak Mishra said the participation of the community and the activities of the VID programme reflected the strong commitments of people, Government and donors to creativity in order to improve the living conditions of poor Vietnamese people and those who do not enjoy full access to public services.

The awarded innovative ideas will be applied to bring practical benefits to the people, he said.
VID 2011 was jointly launched by the World Bank and the Ministry of Planning and Investment in March, 2011. The organising board selected 36 finalists from 332 entries, focused on three sub-themes: energy efficiency, traditional herbal medicine, and agriculture-based products and services.

VID 2011 aimed to seek innovations in acquiring, adopting, creating and using new technologies, processes and products that would reduce wastage of energy and promote alternative low-carbon energy sources; initiatives that tap Vietnam’s great potential in enhancing scientific and clinical research to allow traditional herbal medicine products to be brought to the market and improve access to related services and agricultural products/services through improving farmers’ links with the domestic food market and export distribution channels. /.