Nhan Dan Online- ‘Traffic Safety’ will be the theme for the Vietnam Innovation Day 2007, to be held mid-June in Vietnam. This was announced yesterday by the National Traffic Safety Committee, Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and The World Bank in Vietnam, the co-organisers of this event.

The theme ‘Traffic Safety’ includes five sub-themes: Enforcement of traffic regulations; Education and Awareness raising; Better emergency services/responses; Reducing pollution; and Improvement in traffic environment and road design.

The Vietnam Innovation Day programme, which is annually organised by the World Bank, is a ‘mini marketplace’ for innovative ideas that address local development challenges.

At the press conference launching the Vietnam Innovation Day 2007 held in Hanoi yesterday, Deputy Chief of the Secretariat of the National Traffic Safety Committee Nguyen Trong Thai said that traffic safety had been a major concern for the Vietnamese government in the country’s development process. Therefore, this competition, together with other activities by the National Traffic Safety Committee such as the Forum on Traffic Safety, would be a great contribution to Government, ministries and localities’ efforts to reduce the number of injuries and the loss of life, he added.

“Vietnam has been 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,” he said.

This is the fifth time such a kind of programme has ever been organised. The first Vietnam Innovation Day was held in 2003 with theme ‘Life Safety, followed by Fighting HIV/AIDS in 2004; Environment Actions in 2005 and Disadvantaged Children and Youth last year.

By DIEU THUY