Committee Reports: Breakthrough in Development Agenda Discussions

WIPO Director General Kamil Idris joined delegates and observers in warmly welcoming the positive outcome achieved at the February 19 to 23 meeting of the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA).

Under the chairmanship of Ambassador C. Trevor Clarke, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations in Geneva, the negotiators from 105 countries, looking at proposals to enhance the development dimension in WIPO’s work, agreed on a first set of recommendations. This will be a part of the final list of agreed proposals to be recommended for action to the WIPO General Assembly in September 2007, following a further meeting of the PCDA in June 2007. The first set of recommendations pertain to WIPO’s work in the areas of technical assistance and capacity building; norm-setting, flexibilities, public policy and public domain; technology transfer, information and communication technologies and access to knowledge; assessment, evaluation and impact studies; institutional matters, including mandate and governance; and certain other issues.

Dr. Idris congratulated negotiators on showing the political will, the spirit of compromise and the mutual understanding necessary to move these discussions forward. "I am certain that it is the collective will of members of this Organization and the Secretariat," he said, "to ensure that international efforts to build the intellectual property (IP) system are balanced and responsive to the needs and interests of all countries - developed and developing. IP protection is not an end in itself, but should...