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IFIA Mag azine Se p t ember 2018 IFIA Mag azine Se p t ember 2018

KIWIE 2018

CONVENES 300 economic situations.

WOMEN KIWIE 2018 offered an opportunity to raise the global status
of women and strengthen the solidarity and cooperation
INVENTORS IN among world women inventors.
To honor the accomplishment of women and their contribu-
SEOUL, SOUTH tion to the advancement of technology, IFIA Best Invention
Medals were awarded by Mr. Masoud Shafaghi, IFIA Strategic
KOREA Planning Manager, to two outstanding women inventors.

The first one was granted to Mrs. Manel Kanthi Mahanama
from Sri Lanka for her innovation titled “Ideal flowers based
on natural rubber latex for flower decoration”. Synthetic flow-
ers are innovated based on natural rubber latex which has
similar appearance, texture and properties to natural flowers
and leaves. The most important and valuable benefit of this
Eco-friendly product is that it can be produced under cot-
tage industry due to the simplicity of the technique and low
cost of the production. Other than that, there are several ben-
efits such as withstanding extreme weather condition, being
washable, being easily transported and flexibility of the prod-
uct. According to the above- stated reasons, Sri Lanka will
pride itself for manufacturing value added synthetic flowers
and leaves depending on the natural rubber as raw material
to expand the local and global rubber market.

The other IFIA award was conferred to Mrs. Flordeliza Ursua
from the Philippines for the ornamental design of a flute musi-
cal instrument which is made of Bamboo.

The 11th anniversary of Korea International Women’s Invention Exposition, KIWIE
2018, organized by Korea Women Inventors Association (KWAI) took place from
June 28th to July 1st in Seoul, Korea under the patronage of IFIA convening around
300 women inventors from 24 countries. The large participation of women and
extensive display of inventions is a good testimony of the passion of women for
invention.

Since its foundation in 1993, Korea Women Inventors Association has played a lead-
ing role in women’s development by continuously providing various IP training
and support programs to help women discover their creativity and improve their

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