Maintenance of economic growth does not mean to achieve it in any price, the World Bank officer said.

The World Bank announced start of the Development Marketplace program aimed at identifying and directly supporting innovative bottom-up development ideas through protecting ecology and literate resource management.

Irina Tsoy, external officer of the World Bank Country Office in Tashkent, said: ?The efforts of the World Bank aim to improve quality of growth in the country through ideas, including local initiatives on ecological balanced economic development.?

She said: ?Development Marketplace-2005 supports innovative ideas in ecology. Organisations and individuals interested in the project offered to propose ecological initiatives, with new approaches on solving problems on economic growth and ecological sustainability. ?

Development Marketplace-2005 is open to all, including non governmental organizations and other civil society organizations, multilateral and bilateral development agencies (including the World Bank), private foundations, universities and schools, private sector groups, individuals, and local and municipal governments. The maximum award size in DM2005 will be US$150,000.

The World Bank has implemented over 500 different projects worth US$25 million at global and country levels since 1998.