Open liaison office in Dhaka
PM requests WIPO director general
Dr Francis Gurry, Director General of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) , one of the 16 specialised agencies of the United Nations, pays a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday at the Prime Minister's Office in the city yesterday morning.Photo: PID
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday requested the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to open its liaison office in Dhaka for better coordination between Bangladesh and the organisation in various sectors. She made the request when Dr Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, one of the 16 specialised agencies of the United Nations, paid a courtesy call on her at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in the morning. During the meeting the Prime Minister reiterated her call to the WIPO for another 15 years' waiver of Bangladesh and other LDC countries in pharmaceuticals sector from intellectual property (IP) rights regime, said Prime Minister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad. Stressing the need for establishing an integrated National IP office in Bangladesh to coordinate all IP related activities in the country, Hasina said her government during its last tenure had integrated patent and trademarks offices. “Our government is now working on the establishment of an integrated National IP office merging the functions of the Patent and Trademarks Office and the functions of the Copyright Office,” she said, seeking WIPO's support in this regard. On waiver issue, she said pharmaceuticals industry of Bangladesh has achieved remarkable growth under the intellectual property waiver. Bangladesh now exports its high quality and competitively priced pharmaceutical products to over 70 countries, including many LDCs, she said. She said the growth of Bangladesh's pharmaceutical industry has thus benefited all the LDCs in guaranteeing primary healthcare needs of their peoples. Hasina stressed that the world should now begin to allow extension of this waiver for the pharmaceutical industry in LDCs at least for another 15 years beyond 2015. “WIPO should prepare a study on this to be deliberated upon by the member states for a decision,” she said. The PM said Bangladesh is keen to further strengthen its partnership with the WIPO in order to utilise intellectual property as a tool for implementing her government's vision of creating a 'Digital Bangladesh' by 2021 marking the country's 50 years of independence. She stressed that effective utilisation of intellectual property (IP) tools and information technology (IT) would be important in attaining the development objectives set by her government. Hasina told the WIPO DG that Bangladesh is now in the process of finalising its IP policy, which will also identify the key elements of a strategy that needs to be put in place for achieving the development goals. In response, Dr Gurry said the WIPO would continue to assist Bangladesh in attaining its development targets in related fields. He highly praised Hasina's leadership in all development activities and expressed strong hope that Bangladesh and its people will be able to successfully implement the development programmes. Ambassador at-large M Ziauddin, Prime Minister's Office Secretary Mollah Waheeduzzaman and Industries Secretary Dewan Zakir Hossain were present.
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