WIPO High Level Forum for Least Developed Countries

Ministers and top officials from least developed countries (LDCs) highlighted the importance of intellectual property (IP) as a strategic tool for alleviating poverty and promoting wealth creation at a high level forum hosted by WIPO in December. The Forum enabled participants to explore practical solutions to questions about how the IP system can be used to ensure that it serves the interests of LDCs in meeting their development objectives.

In his opening address, WIPO Director General Kamil Idris outlined WIPO's assistance to LDCs and pledged further support in helping these countries develop their IP capacity in order to support the development of new products and services, and to increase market access, investment and trade.

Ambassador Debapriya Bhattacharya, Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of Bangladesh to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, who is the current Chairman of the Coordination Council of LDCs, described how IP can serve as a "strategic tool to promote innovation and give a boost to the SMEs, generate income for our artisans and performers, protect our traditional knowledge, healing practices and cultural heritage from misappropriation, help increase food production, bring benefit from geographical indicators, expand innovative and non-traditional ways of learning, facilitate investment and transfer for technology and generate wealth."

Among the LDC ministers who addressed a special plenary session on the theme of Building IP Capacity and a Knowledge Base for Wealth Creation, Social and Cultural Development, Mrs. Mpeo Mahase-Moiloa, Lesotho's Minister for Law and Constitutional Affairs and for Justice, Human Rights and Rehabilitation, and Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), suggested that enhancing awareness and illustrating how the IP system can lead to economic gain was one of the greatest challenges in African countries today. Senegal's Minister for Mines...