A national competition called E-idea which will support Vietnam in its fight against climate change has launched in Vietnam. It is being launched across Asia Pacific by the British Council and Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) with activities in Australia, China, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
To mark the occasion the website http://www.e-idea.org is now up and running and ready to provide information and applications forms for interested participants. The competition will close in Vietnam on July 3, 2011.
Projects have to clearly address some of the biggest environmental challenges facing local urban communities including waste reduction and efficiency, environmental transport and travel, energy reduction, water efficiency and sustainable design.
The regional competition was formally announced at the Sydney Opera House in January this year by William Hague, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who described E-idea as: "Addressing one of the central problems in world affairs and calls for people's ingenuity and entrepreneurship in doing so. I hope many, many people are going to take part".
British Council Vietnam Director Robin Rickard said: “Vietnam is a fast-moving dynamic and truly entrepreneurial culture. It is also one of the countries most at risk from climate change and with urban expansion faces more environmental concerns than most”.
LRQA, as part of the 250-year-old Lloyd’s Register Group, brings a well-established independent and authoritative professional global network as well as a high level of technical climate change expertise. The E-idea competition will enable the young winning entrepreneurs to plug into LRQA’s global business network of 50,000 clients.
“We know from our experience of working with young people that this scenario has promoted huge concern for the environment. Against this backdrop we are convinced that Vietnam will be well represented among the future’s eco entrepreneurs and we want to help”, added Mr Robin Rickard.
