The Vietnam Women's Innovation Day 2013 (VWID) opened on October 1 in Hanoi, seeking and supporting initiatives for the economic empowerment of women in the country.

Representatives from the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU), the World Bank (WB) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Vietnam attended the event.

In her opening speech, VWU Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa said the organisation of the day aims to provide an opportunity for female individuals and groups nationwide to share and realise their initiatives, thus narrowing gender gap in the fields of economy, labour and employment, while improving access to economic resources and the market for poor women, especially those from ethnic minority groups.

The event also serves as a forum for policy makers and experts to discuss and propose effective measures to stimulate potential and creativity of women, contributing actively to improving living condition of women and girls in Vietnam , she added.

The WB Country Director, Victoria Kwakwa said the event aims to honour and support innovative ideas towards empowering and enhancing the economic capacity of Vietnamese women.

She expressed her hope that Vietnamese women’s initiatives will be soon applied in practice in order to help many women escape from poverty and improve their living condition.

Since the event was announced in March, the organising board received 130 innovative products and 219 creative ideas and projects from 57 provinces and cities across the country.

Among them, 38 research projects and products in the economic field have been selected for the final round.

In the framework of the VWID, a fair to introduce products of 30 businesses run by female entrepreneurs nationwide, has been underway from September 27-October 6.

Since first launched in 2003, VWID has received nearly 1,600 entries nationwide and granted more than 2.4 million USD to 231 innovative projects.-VNA