Hanoi, 15 June 2011 - About 425,000 USD was awarded to 16 community projects, to be implemented in different areas of Vietnam toward the goal of social equity and sustainable growth.
Sponsored by the Vietnam Innovation Day 2011 "Innovation for Social Equity and Sustainable Growth", the winning projects receive up to 30,000 USD each, under three categories: effective energy consumption; traditional herb medicine; and agricultural based products and services.
According to Deepak Mishra, Lead Economist of the World Bank in Vietnam, “The community’s participation into VID activities reflected the strong commitment of people, the Government, donors and other partners to innovations for the improvements of life of the Vietnamese people, especially the poor and those without access to public services.”
The jurors, including senior experts from the Government, donors, business community, researchers and the media evaluated the projects proposals based on several main criteria, including contributions to the theme of social equity and sustainable growth, creativity, feasibility, sustainability and community participation.
Some of the winning projects were highly appreciated, thanks to their feasibility and impact, such as popularizing fuel-free water pumps for mountainous regions; automatic solar energy switch, low-cost treatment of handicraft village waste, or turning waste into the basic resources for local life. All winning projects were highly valued for their creativity and commitment from the project owners.
The competition, organized since March 2011 by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the World Bank, attracted 332 proposals, of which 36 was qualified for the final round. This year, the VID was funded by the Embassy of Denmark, DFID, AUSAID, USAID, CIDA, the Embassy of Finland and The World Bank.
